Ki’linochchi police try to free SLA soldiers suspected of gang rape

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 06:06 GMT]
Ki’linochchi police informed Ki’linochchi magistrate court Thursday that they have no objection in releasing the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers detained on suspicion of gang raping a mother of two children in the resettled Visuvamadu in Vanni, legal sources in Ki’linochchi said. The suspects, earlier identified by the victim in an identification parade, had filed a petition seeking their release on bail. The lawyers appearing on behalf of the woman protested against releasing the suspects pointing out that it will give room for the suspects to intimidate the witnesses in this case, the sources added.
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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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Jaffna Tamil daily reporter dies in accident

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 19:45 GMT]
A 32-year-old reporter and photographer of 'Yarl Thinakkural', a Tamil daily published from Jaffna died Tuesday morning in an accident when he was hit by a bus on A9 road at Usan while on duty. The victim, Perampalam Jeyachandran alias Jeyam, a father of one child, was a native of I'lavaalai. Mr. Jeyachandran was one of the few journalists who served with commitment to journalism particularly during the dangerous times that prevailed in the peninsula, media sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA claims to have removed 290,445 mines in North, East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 July 2010, 18:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) claimed that 290,445 mines have been removed in the North and East and adjacent areas. Of them 59379 mines were removed from Mannaar district, 30905 mines from Vavuniyaa district, 57710 mines from Kilinochchi district and 16749 mines in Mullaiththeevu district, according to Military media spokesman Brigadier Ubaya Medewela.
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SLA obliterates Tiger Heroes' Cemeteries, erects military bases

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 July 2010, 18:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) which has been systematically razing to the ground without any traces the Thamizh Eezham Heroes War Cemeteries (Thamizh Eezha Maaveerar Thuyilum Illam) in several places of North and East, has in recent weeks obliterated the Thuyilum Illam at Kodikaaman in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna, and is erecting a big SLA base in its place. Ellangku’lam Heroes Cemetery in Udupiddi in Vadamaraadchi had been already destroyed without any trace and the premises converted into an SLA base. The obliterated Thuyilum Illam is now enclosed by barbed wire fence and hidden by coconut cadjans where a large number of SLA soldiers are hurriedly constructing a base. Tamil circles view the systematic destruction of Tamil war heroes' cemeteries and the symbols of the Tamil struggle in north and East as part of a large-scale genocide programme on Tamils by the Sri Lankan state.
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Power of ideology sustains Tamil struggle: Gulf News

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 June 2010, 09:53 GMT]
Gulf News, a newspaper published from Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, in an Op-Ed article on Wednesday said the idea of separate state for Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka is kept alive by the 'power of ideology' although Colombo managed to win the war on LTTE with a 'single-minded' approach. Although it is a softer doctrine, it is capable of gathering momentum over a period of time, the paper said. "Judging by the recent sequence of events, the past may, by all accounts, come back to haunt Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse," the editorial said adding that the onus is on Rajapakse's government to address the plight of the Tamils sooner rather than later.
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Jaffna GA K. Ganesh retires from service

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 June 2010, 18:44 GMT]
Mr. K. Ganesh, Government Agent (GA), Jaffna who is retiring from service Wednesday expressed his gratitude to all, particularly the media, for the cooperation offered to him in performing duties as the GA even under trying circumstances during war time, in a message to local media Tuesday. Ms. Imelda Sukumar, presently the GA of Mullaiththeevu district, will succeed Mr. K. Ganesh as the GA of Jaffna district from Thursday, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Mr. V. Velnathan, former GA of Ki'linochchi district, who had been arrested and detained under Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for allegedly supplying information to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and released later is to assume duties as Mullaiththeevu district GA, the sources added.
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KP-Diaspora programme operated by SL Military Intelligence: Doctor Arudkumar

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 June 2010, 21:31 GMT]
Sri Lankan Director of National Intelligence, Major General Kapila Hendawitharana, the longest serving intelligence officer of the military, is in charge of the covert and overt programme of dividing and conquering the Tamil diaspora, alludes British Tamil doctor Velauthapillai Arudkumar, who visited the island recently as part of a ‘Tamil diaspora visit’ organised by Colombo through Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP. TamilNet releases an exclusive video interview with Dr. Arudkumar taken two days ago, in which he reveals the details of the trip. SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Maj. Gen. Hendawitharana and External Affairs Minister G.L.Peiris, all spoke in a well-synchronised way. Military counterinsurgency and 'post-war development' are intertwined aiming at Tamil subjugation, the doctor infers in his interview.
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Colombo schemes Sinhalicised capital for North

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 June 2010, 05:52 GMT]
Similar to the Sinhalicisation of Trincomalee, the capital of the East, Colombo plans for a new, Sinhalicised capital for the North too at Ki'linochchi, administrative sources working for Colombo on the project said. Ki'linochchi is being prepared for that with an extensive military cantonment with permanent houses for military personnel, cultivation lands for them, an airstrip at Ira'naimadu, new Buddhist temples and by not allowing the local population to their lands. For every three people there is one military personnel at present. When resettled, the local Tamils will be herded into pockets and there will be a new population, considerably Sinhalicised, the sources said adding that with the completion of the plot, there won’t be even one city or administrative centre existing for Tamils in the island.
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Colombo decides to hold next cabinet meeting in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2010, 17:25 GMT]
The United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Government decided to hold weekly cabinet meetings at provincial level from next month. First such meeting will be held in Kilinochchi on July 14 presided by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, Minister Maithripala Sirisena told media Thursday.
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Resettled Vanni civilians left uncared for

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2010, 07:25 GMT]
130 families of uprooted Vanni civilians resettled four days ago in Oottuuppulam, a village along A9 road near Muruka’ndi in Ki’linochchi district had to seek shelter under trees in the pouring rain Tuesday night as they were not provided with tarpaulins to put up temporary shelter, a local NGO official in Ki’linochchi said. The resettled civilians had not been given even the dry food rations by government authorities in charge of resettlement in Vanni, he said.
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PAC instructs government heads to invite SLA Commander to official functions in North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2010, 07:07 GMT]
The Secretary of Presidential Action Committee (PAC) has issued strict instruction to the Government Agents of the five districts in North to invite Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander, government parliamentarians and the key members of PAC to all official functions and ceremonies of the government departments.
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WFP opens office in Kilinochchi

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 June 2010, 05:16 GMT]
The United Nations (UN) opened a World Food Programme (WFP) office in Kilinochchi. It would be expanded in due course including staff from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), media reports said quoting WFP sources.
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Akashi visits Ki’linochchi for the first time after war

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 June 2010, 19:06 GMT]
Yasushi Akashi, the special envoy appointed by Japan during the Norwegian facilitated negotiations between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), accompanied by Basil Rajapaksa, handed over agricultural implements to some of the resettled Vanni civilians Friday in an event held in Ki’linochchi town. Yasushi Akashi who had held talks with the LTTE in Ki’linochchi was visiting the town for the first time after Sri Lankan military occupied the entire Vanni.
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India was not happy about Norwegian peace: Prof Shanmugaratnam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 June 2010, 10:40 GMT]
India was not happy about Norway being given a role in peace brokering in Sri Lanka. Japan was keen to be the broker, but India was more against Japan than Norway, said Dr. N. Shanmugaratnam, Professor of Development Studies and Head of Research of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, while addressing a session on the failed peace process and Norway’s role in Sri Lanka, at a conference held in Nansen Peace Centre in Norway last Friday. The Norwegian Tamil academic also said that in his view the key challenges to the peace process were internal than international and the internal has always been decisive. Post mortem of the peace process has become a hot topic in Norwegian circles nowadays since the failed envoys of Sri Lankan process have embarked upon fresh peace initiatives elsewhere.
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Memorial monument for war victims unveiled in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 June 2010, 04:09 GMT]
The Catholic clergy and people of Uruththirapuram in Ki’linochchi in Vanni recently opened a monument in memory of the thousands of Vanni people killed in the war, sources in Ki’linochchi said. The monument is erected in Uruththirapuram Catholic church premise along with the memorial monument earlier erected in memory of Rev. Mariampillai Sathejus Sarath Jeevan called Jeeva who had continued to serve the people even during the war and died of heart attack while fleeing Vanni in the last stages of the war, the sources added.
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6 SLA soldiers rape young mother in Visuvamadu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2010, 17:34 GMT]
A 25-year old mother of two children was raped by six Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers last Sunday night in the resettlement village of Redbarna located at the border of Mullaiththeevu district, Jaffna daily Uthayan reported. The incident occurred when the soldiers entered the house when the mother was alone. The family relocated to the village two weeks earlier as part of the resettlement program.
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Resettled people in Vanni suffer increasing SLA harassment

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 June 2010, 04:30 GMT]
Disappearances, sexual abuse and extortion by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers in Vanni where people have been allowed to resettle have increased and the victims are helpless as there are no authorities to complain against the violence except to the SLA in Vanni, a government officer in Vanni said. Meanwhile, SLA earmarks properties with ‘Reserved for SLA’ notice boards and the owners of the marked properties have to pay large sums of money to claim their properties back, a worker of an NGO in Vanni said.
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Skeletal remains found in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 June 2010, 16:18 GMT]
The owners of a house in Ka’ndaava’lai in Ki’linochchi district in Vanni found a human skeletal remains lying in the backyard when they were preparing to resettle in their house, sources in Vanni said. Meanwhile, unidentified men had caused injuries Tuesday to an elderly man and his wife who were alone in their house in Nedungkea’ni in Vanni and the man succumbed to the injuries later, the sources added.
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People’s Bank fails to announce remedial measures to war affected customers in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 June 2010, 04:31 GMT]
The customers of People’s Bank branches in Vanni who expected alternative measures to be announced in the events of opening three People’s Bank branches Monday in Vanni were greatly disappointed as the key officials, including Governor of Sri Lanka Central Bank, Ajith Nivard Cabraal who participated in the events failed to say anything about their bank documents lost due to war, sources in Vanni said.
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