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.
Full story >>

SLA appropriates uprooted civilians’ villages in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 July 2010, 04:43 GMT]
Occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vanni has declared the villages of Mayilvaakanapuram and Kumarasaamipuram in Ki’linochchi district not allowed for resettlement as they had been reserved for SLA use, sources in Ki’linochchi said. 140 uprooted families of the two villages brought to be resettled two months back after detention in Vavuniyaa SLA camp by Sri Lankan civil authorities have not been allowed to resettle in their properties.
Full story >>

Malwatte Chapter Chief Incumbent visits newly erected Buddhist temples in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 July 2010, 17:34 GMT]
The Chief Incumbent of Malwatte Chapter, Most Venerable Thippaduwaave Sri Sumangala thera, accompanied by Buddhist priests visited Vanni Wednesday where he worshiped in the Buddhist temples newly erected by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources in Vanni said. Thursday, the Chief Incumbent participated in an event in Nelliyadi Maththiya Makaa Viththiyaalayam in Vadamaraadchi and distributed learning materials to the children of war affected areas of Vadamaraadchi and Thenmaraadchi. This visit is counted as the first by a Chief Incumbent of Malwatte Chapter to Jaffna after many years, sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Resettled couple in Vanni attempt suicide, husband dies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 16:39 GMT]
A young couple, recently resettled in Ki’linochchi district in Vanni, attempted to kill themselves Sunday. The neighbours rushed them to Ki’linochchi government hospital where the husband died and the wife, transferred to Jaffna Teaching Hospital, is admitted in the Intensive Care Unit. The couple had lost all four of their children during the war in Puthumaaththa’lan, killed in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling on civilians, sources in Ki’linochchi said. Frustration over their children’s death and the loss of all their belongings had driven the couple to attempt suicide, the neighbours said.
Full story >>

Plans to move NPC from Trincomalee to Ki’linochchi postponed

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 July 2010, 06:48 GMT]
Plans to move Northern Provincial Council (NPC) and its offices now functioning in Trincomalee to Ki’linochchi by Northern Province Governor Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and Sri Lanka government have been indefinitely postponed due to opposed opinion of the NPC officials who maintain that Ki’linochchi has not returned to normalcy and there are no basic facilities for the officials and employees to reside and work, sources in Trincomalee said. Chandrasiri is very keen on making use of the buildings earlier used by Liberation Tigers in Ki’linochchi as NPC departmental offices and former Ki’linochchi Government Agent and present personal advisor to Governor, Rasanayagam, is aiding him in identifying such buildings, Ki’linochchi sources said.
Full story >>

SLA personnel to be settled in uprooted civilians’ land in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 July 2010, 06:28 GMT]
Five thousand houses constructed in Mu’ruka’ndi area in Ki’linochchi district including Skanthapuram along A9 road are to be settled in August with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) senior and junior officials and their families permanently while the uprooted civilians brought to be resettled in Skanthapuram are left in a school building by Sri Lanka government officials, sources in Ki’linochchi said.
Full story >>

Jaffna HRC to investigate cases of persons disappeared at the end of war on Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 17:46 GMT]
An official of Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) office said that the first stage of preliminary investigation to find out the fate of persons who had disappeared after leaving Liberation Tigers controlled area in Vanni at the end of the war, is in the offing. Representatives of Associations related to finding persons disappeared after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) or surrender, however, said that they believe that the above announcement will also end up with no results just as their earlier complaints to HRC, ICRC and UNHCR on disappeared persons remain stored in files without any action taken on them so far.
Full story >>

Reconciliation pre-requisite to development, World Bank VP tells Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 11:42 GMT]
World Bank Vice President for South Asia Isabel Guerrero who ended a three-day visit to Sri Lanka pledging support to Sri Lanka's transition to a middle income country at peace, has emphasized that reconciliation is a pre-requisite for development in Sri Lanka. During her visit to Sri Lanka, Guerrero called on Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and key officials of the Sri Lanka Government.
Full story >>

Resettled family children in Vanni abandon school to earn a living

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 06:20 GMT]
Most of the resettled families having lost their earning male members either killed, disappeared or detained in prison after arrest or surrender, their children are forced to drop out from school in order to earn a living for the family, an education officer in Vanni said. The number of children above fifteen in the resettled families abandoning school has shot up drastically, though most of them would like to continue schooling if only they have the means, he further said. Politicians and others who had been shouting hard for the rights of children during the war have become silent on this grave issue, Sitsabesan, a local NGO representative in Vanni said.
Full story >>

SLA soldier taking drugs to Kilinochchi arrested

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 July 2010, 11:14 GMT]
Amid several allegations that members of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and other state security forces have been engaged in smuggling ganja, a locally made drug, opium and other prohibited narcotics items to the Northern Province for sale, the Sri Lanka Police Wednesday arrested a soldier of the SLA at Anuradhapura while seated in a bus that destined for Kilinochchi with about one hundred packets of powdered ganja, sources said.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

US landing-ship visits Trincomalee for 'community work'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 18 July 2010, 09:13 GMT]
Sailors and marines from the amphibious dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbour, visiting Trincomalee last week were engaged in repairing broken bathroom sinks and toilets at the base hospital in Moothoor, said the official website of the United States Navy Thursday. Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan media reported Sunday that Sri Lanka shared her experience in fighting Sea Tigers with the US Navy during the three-day visit of the US Pearl Harbour. While some Sailors and Marines are planning to help with military-to-military training on board Pearl Harbor, others are planning on volunteering for medical assistance events ashore, The Sunday Island said.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka cabinet's next stop, Ambilipitiya

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 23:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka Government has decided to hold the next out station Cabinet meeting in Ambilipitiya, the Lankadeepa newspaper said Friday. This follows this week’s Cabinet meeting held in Ki'linochchi, the former headquarters of the LTTE. The significance of holding cabinet meetings in cities across the country is to primarily showcase the fact that Colombo, Sri Lanka's commercial capital, is not the only place where decisions with regard to the country’s upliftment are taken, according to the paper.
Full story >>

Naakappaduvan-ku’lam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 July 2010, 18:47 GMT]
The pond named after Naakan of the Paduvar community
Full story >>

Residents forced indoors as SL armed forces take control of Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 20:47 GMT]
The recently resettled people in Vanni were forced to remain indoors Wednesday as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, Special Task Force (STF) commandos, Sri Lanka police and the President’s Special Security Force soldiers took control of A9 road and the main streets in the districts of Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu as a part of security measures related to the Cabinet meeting held by President Rajapakasa in Ki’linochchi Wednesday, sources in Vanni said.
Full story >>

Cabinet meeting in Ki'linochchi aims to deceive Sinhala people: UNP MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 18:17 GMT]
“All should understand that the Sinhala people also have to bear the burden of foreign loans Sri Lanka has to borrow to develop the North which was destructed by Tigers,” Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed in a public meeting in Ki’linochchi Wednesday after having held the Cabinet Meeting in Ira’naimadu Sri Lanka Army (SLA) head quarters in Vanni. Nearly a hundred people brought by SLA participated in the meeting held under tight security. “There is no minority in the country but all are majority in the sense that all are Sri Lankans,” Mahinda Rajapaksa further claimed. Meanwhile, Jayalath Jeyawardene, an opposition United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian said in a statement to media in Colombo Wednesday that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s cabinet meeting in Ki’linochchi was a political drama to deceive the Sinhalese in the South, condemning the Ki’linochchi cabinet meeting.
Full story >>

SLA denies irrigation facility to resettled civilians in Ki’linochchi district

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 19:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Ki’lnochchi has stopped the supply of water to the paddy fields cultivated under Akka’rayan Ku’lam in Ki’linochchi district by resettled civilians claiming the water in the reservoir is reserved for its supply of drinking water, the resettled civilians said. The paddy cultivated by the resettled civilians face the risk of withering off due to lack of water, they said. SLA in Akka’rayan Ku’lam area obtains its drinking water transported in water bowsers from the tank.
Full story >>

SLA strengthens security in Ki’linochchi prior to Cabinet meeting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 18:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has strengthened security in and around Ki’linochchi in Vanni as President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to hold his cabinet meeting in Ira’naimadu SLA Vanni Head Quarters Wednesday, sources in Ki’linochchi said. Traffic along A9 road has been cut down while hundreds of SLA soldiers and police personnel are posted at several points along the road. This is the first ever cabinet meeting to be held out of Colombo and an important one for President Mahinda Rajapaksa after the end of the war on Vanni, the sources added.
Full story >>

450 voluntary teachers in Vanni struggle for permanent appointment

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 July 2010, 10:11 GMT]
Four hundred and fifty volunteer teachers serving in schools in the districts of Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu are still awaiting permanency in their posts even after ten years of service under trying condition, education sources said.
Full story >>