No development in Jaffna worthy of mention – German delegation

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 November 2010, 05:44 GMT]
A delegation of German MPs led by Ms. Petra Ernstberger visited Jaffna accompanied by German Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Jens Ploetner and Mr. Guido Baumann, officer in charge of press affairs. Mr. Guido Bauman, at the end of the visit Thursday, told local press that the delegation saw no development worthy of mention in Jaffna. He added that the main intention of the delegation was to find out how the German tax payers’ money given as donation is being used in Jaffna peninsula. Mr. Holger Ortel, Mr. Jurgen Kilmke and Dr. Birgit Reinemund were the three German other parliamentarians besides Ms. Petra Ernstberger visiting Jaffna.
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Colombo schemes Sinhalicisation of Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2010, 02:13 GMT]
Following the end of war in Vanni last year, the Colombo government has taken over three thousand acres private land in Eastern Province in seven Tamil Divisional Secretariat areas for the purpose of setting up new Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps, colonizing the traditional Tamil homeland with Sinhala people and for contracting the land to external actors for commercial exploitation, civil society circles in Batticaloa said. Some of the private lands taken over, rich with resources, are to be given on long term lease to entrepreneurs from South involving Chinese and Iranian assistance, the sources added.
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CaFFE urges proper registration of detained voters in camps

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 November 2010, 15:33 GMT]
The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) in a statement urged Sri Lanka Department of Elections to implement a proper program to register the persons above the age of eighteen now held in the detention centers in the North including Menik Farm, in the 2010 voters’ list revising process. The voter registration process in many parts of the North is in its final stages right now.
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Tourists not allowed to visit Jaffna Public Library

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 October 2010, 17:16 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers posted at the entrance of Jaffna Public Library did not allow any of the tourists who wished to visit the library Saturday, sources in Jaffna said. SLA officials had informed the Chief Librarian of Jaffna Public Library that tourists will not be permitted to visit the library according to instruction issued by government authorities. This instruction had come in the wake of a gang of Sinhala tourists storming into the library and vandalizing the premises of the Thanthai Chelva memorial monument located next to the library last on 22 October. SLA authorities had posted four soldiers at the entrance of the library Friday to guard the library along with the guards of Jaffna Municipal Council Administration.
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NP Governor retracts sudden transfer of Ki’linochchi Director of Education

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 October 2010, 05:59 GMT]
The education officials and principals of schools in Ki’linochchi district abstained from duties Wednesday in protest against the sudden transfer order to K. Kurukularajah, Zonal Director of Education in Ki’linochchi, by Northern Province Governor, Major. Gen. G. A. Chandarasiri. The governor, however, said that the transfer order has been immediately cancelled in a meeting he convened in Vavuniyaa Thursday, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The governor had also claimed that he had nothing to do with the sudden transfer order to K. Kurukularaja. Meanwhile, the protestors in Ki’linochchi said that Chandrasiri acts more like a military commander in performing his duties than as the governor of Northern Province. He had been the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander of Jaffna before being appointed as governor. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) too had joined in the Wednesday protest.
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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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Resettled families in North suffer without basic medical facilities

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 October 2010, 06:00 GMT]
The female patients of the families allowed to resettle in Ki’linochchi district are forced to travel a long distance to Jaffna or Vavuniyaa as there is no female medical specialist in Ki’linochchi government hospital, hospital sources said. Meanwhile, there is no hospital at all in Vadamaraadchi East where more than six thousand uprooted people had been allowed to resettle and the people have to come to Jaffna Teaching Hospital for treatment of all kinds of illness travelling a long distance, sources in Jaffna said. Sri Lanka government which says that it is gradually improving medical services in the North has failed to provide even the basic medical facilities to the resettled people in Vanni and Vadmaraadchi East, the sources further said.
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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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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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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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Sri Lankan police fail to protect harassed female ex-combatant

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 October 2010, 09:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka police in Veala’nai in the islets of Jaffna have ignored the complaints made by a former underage female member of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on attempts made by a gang of ten men on 09 October to abduct and sexually abuse her in her relative’s house in Veala’nai. IOM and UNICEF officials who had facilitated her release from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camp and placed her in the custody of her relatives too have not taken steps to protect her from being intimidated by her tormentors even in Jaffna Teaching Hospital where she is admitted for treatment, the girl said. The family members who had given her refuge had been attacked by the gang and injured when they tried to protect the girl.
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North ‘Development’ meeting to be held in Vavuniyaa SLA Headquarters

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 October 2010, 07:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to preside over the Northern Provincial Development Committee meeting on October 19 in Vavuniyaa. The venue of the meeting is the regional headquarters of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) located in Vavuniyaa. Similar development committee meeting for the Eastern Province was held in the Naval Headquarters located inside Trincomalee Naval Dockyard recently.
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Northern ‘Development’ Meeting to be held in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 October 2010, 05:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to hold the ‘Development’ Meeting of North in Vavuniyaa 19 October and a meeting to discuss arrangement for the Vavuniyaa meeting was held Monday in Jaffna Secretariat by Northern Province Governor, Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and Sri Lanka Minister, Douglas Devananda. The Government Agents of the districts of Jaffna, Ki’linochchi, Mullaiththeevu, Vavuniyaa and Mannaar participated in the meeting.
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Sinhala men continue to intimidate Tamil cultivators in Eastern Province

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 October 2010, 08:14 GMT]
Sinhala men continue to intimidate the Tamil cultivators in the Tamil villages located on the boundaries of the districts of Batticaloa and Ampaa’rai in Eastern Province preventing them from cultivating their paddy fields, P. Selvarasa, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian said. The Tamil cultivators uprooted from their villages due to war had resettled in their places after a period of 25 years during which the Sinhala men from their neighboring villages had appropriated most of their paddy fields, he said. Recently, Sinhala men had attacked two Tamil cultivators and chased them away from their own properties, the MP further said. No action has been taken on this issue though the TNA parliamentarians of Batticaloa district has brought it to the notice of it to the Government Agent of Batticaloa, he said.
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EPDP Thinamurasu published as daily paper in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 October 2010, 03:14 GMT]
Thinamurasu, the Eealam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) weekly that was published in Colombo and issued in Jaffna peninsula by EPDP leader and Sri Lanka minister Douglas Devananda was released in Jaffna Friday as a daily when he opened his press located in Chu’ndikkuzhi on Jaffna main road. It is alleged that Douglas Devananda had coerced the editors and workers of former ‘Namathu Eezhanaadu’ daily which had stopped publishing, into working in his newly opened press, local media sources said.
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Batticaloa district ignored in post-war 'development'

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 September 2010, 11:38 GMT]
“Colombo Central authority is taking steps to issue water from Unnichchai Tank in Batticaloa district to Sinhala people disregarding appeal made on behalf of Tamil people to the authority concerned. Colombo government has begun suspending 'development' works in Paduvaankarai area and plans to allocate lands in the area to foreign companies and the resources entitled for Tamil people are being given to the Sinhala community. The Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) and its Governor are answerable and should bear responsibility for the injustice done to Tamil people in the area,” R. Thurairatnam, member of the EPC said.
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Ampaa'rai student tops Tamil scholarship exam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 September 2010, 18:23 GMT]
A girl student of Thampiluvil Kalaimakal Viththiyaalayam in Thirukkoayil Education Zone in Ampaa’rai district secured the first place in Tamil medium Year Five scholarship examination 2010.
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‘Elusive international justice snatches away desire to live’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 September 2010, 20:42 GMT]
“We expected some country to step in to resolve the crisis... We believed that a dawn would come, a solution would come through [international] mediation after all the hardships we went through. But, nothing happened. Everything went out of hand for us to end up in the army-controlled area as living corpses. All countries have betrayed us,” told 40-year-old Ananthi Sasitharan, the wife of Elilan, the former Trincomalee Political Head of the LTTE, to BBC Tamil Saturday after complaining to the LLRC that SL President should know the whereabouts of her husband and fellow LTTE officials surrendered through a Catholic Priest in Mullaiththeevu on 18 May 2009. When asked whether she was concerned about repercussions for stating her views publicly from Vanni, the mother of three responded: “I am not afraid. I am prepared to face anything since we don't now live with the zest for life.”
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TID torture Tamil detainees held under PTA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 September 2010, 07:07 GMT]
The Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of Sri Lanka government continues to torture hundreds of Tamil youths arrested and detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) without trial, a journalist who had met the detainees said, under conditions of anonymity. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka government intends to keep the Tamil youths who were combatants of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in detention for five more years, sources close to Sri Lanka prison authorities said.
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Tamil youth dies in road accident in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 September 2010, 17:45 GMT]
A Tamil youth died on the spot and another seriously wounded when a container vehicle crashed against a stationary motor cycle in Vavuniyaa Sunday around 7:00 p.m. The motor cycle had met with an accident colliding against a bicycle near Thennamaruthoadai Chanthi in Poonthoaddam in Vavuniyaa.
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