HC applications to be filed by familes of disappeared LTTE key persons

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 2010, 07:28 GMT]
The family members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eezham (LTTE) key persons gone missing after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) or surrender at the end of the war on Vanni are to file Habeas Corpus (HC) applications next week, sources Jaffna said. According to Sri Lanka minister D. Gunasekara the wives of LTTE senior key persons Balakumaran and Yogi are now widows. Some sources say that both had been killed after surrendering to SLA and some that they are held in special SLA detention centres. The contradicting and confusing information have led their family members to file HC applications, the sources added.
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22 SLA personnel injured in road accident in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 August 2010, 21:18 GMT]
A bus carrying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) personnel travelling from Jaffna to the South on vacation met with an accident Friday morning at Ee'ratperiyaku'lam in Vavuniyaa injuring 22 SLA personnel, Vavuniyaa hospital sources said. Over speeding was said to be the cause of the accident.
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Odduchuddaan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 August 2010, 21:01 GMT]
The quarry mound
The mound or high ground that remains after quarrying
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Resettled families in Vanni left abandoned in deserted places

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 August 2010, 13:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vanni has refused permission to the uprooted families of Kumaarasaamipuram and Mayilvaakanapuram in Ki’linochchi district to resettle in their lands claiming that the area is infested with landmines, sources in Ki’linochchi said. These people were brought from Vavuniyaa SLA Menik Farm camp by Sri Lanka government authorities promising resettlement in their own villages. But now they are left abandoned in deserted places without sufficient food, water, hygienic facilities and safety, the affected civilians said.
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Indian national arrested at Oamanthai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 August 2010, 13:04 GMT]
The Vavuniyaa Magistrate Friday ordered remand till August 10 for an Indian citizen who was arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at Oamanthai check point as he failed to produce Sri Lankan defense ministry clearance on his way to Jaffna in a state run bus, according to Police spokesman Preshantha Jayakody to Colombo media.
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IOM winds up activities in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 July 2010, 11:09 GMT]
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) closed its district office in Trincomalee town with effect from July 31. IOM sources said it has been closed its office in Trincomalee due to lack of funds and that IOM has laid off ten of its employees. However five employees have been transferred to Vavuniyaa (01) and Jaffna (03) in the Northern Province and Ampaarai (01) in the eastern province, IOM sources said.
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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.
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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.
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Shut down in Vavuniyaa against police inaction

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 15:52 GMT]
Vavuniyaa Traders' Association Tuesday staged a general shut down protesting against inaction by Vavuniyaa Police to launch an inquiry into the alleged abduction of a wealthy Tamil businessman from the area few days ago. He was later released after paying the demanded ransom of six hundred thousand rupees to an unidentified gang, sources said.
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STF appropriates Tamil land to erect Buddhist temple in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 July 2010, 17:10 GMT]
The Special Task Force (STF) in Batticaloa district, after asking the Kannaipuram Tamil villagers in Vellave'li DS division to vacate their lands to construct a Murugan Temple, has reportedly started unloading bricks, cements and sand for the construction of a Buddhist vihare.
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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.
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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 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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Thampanaik-ku'lam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 09:28 GMT]
The reservoir in the locality of Thampanai trees (Mischodon zeylanicus)
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Madu uprooted Tamil families abandoned at school without food

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2010, 17:19 GMT]
257 members of 110 uprooted Tamil families have been staying in Periyapa’ndivirichchaan Maha Viththiyaalayam buildings in Madu AGA division in Mannaar district since Saturday without food to elders and milk food to children. They were brought down from temporary shelters in Vavuniyaa and were left in the school building by civil authorities to find their own way to reach their abandoned houses in their villages, sources in Mannaar said.
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CaFFE: Thousands in Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu to be disenfranchised

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 14:41 GMT]
After a fact finding mission to the North, Campaign for Free and Faie Elections (CaFFE), an election watchdog, said that in Ki'linochchi only 16 out of the 96 Kiraama Chevakar (GS) Divisions have received voter registration forms, and in Mullaiththeevu none of the 127 divisions have been distributed with registration forms. CAFFE statement further adds that election officials have written off " 40,000+" IDPs still living in camps. Camp resident IDPs are widely believed to exceed 80,000.
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Northern fishermen society representatives to hold talks with Indian counterparts

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2010, 07:25 GMT]
Representatives of fishermen societies from the districts of Jaffna and Mannar decided in a meeting held in Vavuniyaa Wednesday to send a group of fishermen society representatives to India in August to hold talks with the representatives of fishermen societies in South India to stop Indian fishermen encroaching the northern seas in Sri Lanka, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The issue of Indian fishermen attacking northern fishermen is also to be discussed in the talks, the sources added.
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TNLA to launch protest demonstration against government

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 July 2010, 06:05 GMT]
Tamil National Liberation Alliance (TNLA) leader and former MP Sivajilingam said that TNLA will hold a large scale protest demonstration 2 August in Jaffna urging Sri Lanka government to disclose its decision on the state of persons held in detention and those who had disappeared after arrest by government armed forces, in a press meet held in Jaffna town Tuesday. TNLA has sought the cooperation of Leftist Front and the Committee for the search of disappeared persons in the South to hold the protest demonstration as it fears government obstruction and intimidation, he said.
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