3 People’s Bank branches to be reopened in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 June 2010, 20:37 GMT]
People’s Bank branches of Maangku’lam, Ki’linochchi and Paranthan areas where uprooted civilians have been allowed to resettle in Vanni which had ceased to function due to war are to be officially reopened Monday, sources in Vanni said. It is hoped that the customers of these banks who had lost all their properties and documents will be offered some measures of compensation during the opening events Monday, the sources added.
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SLA soldiers harass resettled women during nights in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 June 2010, 20:29 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier who broke into a house in Thirunakar in Ki’linochchi Friday midnight and attempted to sexually harass a woman was chased away by neighbours, according to complaints made by the resettled families to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, N. Siritharan. The soldier who tried to escape the chasing men accidentally fell into a well on the way and had to remain in the well until rescued by fellow soldiers who came that way in a tractor as the men who chased him did not pull him out.
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Parents appeal for daughter's release from TID detention

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 June 2010, 09:52 GMT]
Parents of Peradeniya undergraduate Rasiah Dwaraka, who is now under detention in the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID), handed over a petition Tuesday afternoon to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) requesting to take steps to obtain Dwaraka's release, sources in Colombo said. Earlier her parents visited their daughter in the TID. Inter University Students Association (IUSA) led by its organizer Udul Premaratne facilitated the visit and handing over of petition. Dwaraka was taken into custody for accepting a medal from LTTE leader Pirapaharan for her academic performance.
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SLA hastens to destroy skeletal remains of victims killed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 June 2010, 16:18 GMT]
Following the disclosure of five male corpses in a toilet pit in Ki’linochchi Monday Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has ordered all skeletal remains of persons assassinated or killed in war lying visibly in Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni, an officer of a humanitarian de-mining organization who had personally seen some skeletal remains along the roads in Mullaiththeevu and the frantic efforts of SLA soldiers to burn them without any trace told TamilNet Tuesday. Colombo has sent in a team of Sinhalese officers from Vavuniyaa to survey the areas and evaluate the extent of de-mining that has to be done, with the assistance of SLA, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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5 male corpses exhumed from toilet pit in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 May 2010, 11:43 GMT]
Five male bodies estimated to be between 20 to 35 years of age, in highly decomposed state and packed securely in five separate bags were exhumed from the toilet pit of a house in Ka'neasapuram in Ki’linochchi under the supervision of Vavuniyaa Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) Dr. P. Sritharan and in the presence of Ki’linochchi magistrate Monday morning, sources in Ki’linochchi said. Some of the bodies had clothes with Tiger stripes, some in Lamb Black uniforms used by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and some in ordinary civilian dress, the sources added.
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Corpses located in toilet pit in Ki’linochchi to be exhumed Monday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 May 2010, 16:01 GMT]
The plastic bags containing six corpses found dumped in a toilet pit of a house in Kaneasapuram in Ki’linochchi are to be dug out Monday in the presence of the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) from Vavuniyaa Government Hospital, on the directive of Ki’linochchi magistrate who visited the site. Members of the family resettled in the said house in February had located Saturday dead bodies of massacred victims, buried inside their toilet pit. Ki’linochchi parliamentarian Sritharan who visited the house and saw the toilet pit said that the killings must have been a planned affair.
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Local elections in North to be announced shortly: Basil Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 May 2010, 18:33 GMT]
The government is to hold elections to local authorities in the Northern Province shortly, Sri Lankan Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, who is tasked to handle the elections on behalf of the ruling alliance, told media while addressing an inaugural event held in Ki'linochchi Friday.
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University student dies in road accident at EPS junction

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 May 2010, 18:22 GMT]
A 22-year-old undergraduate student, Shanmuganathan Sujeevan, died in a road accident Friday evening when he was on his way in a motor bicycle with his brother to see his house located between Umaiyaa'lpuram and Ki'linochchi.
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Family man beaten to death in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 May 2010, 17:14 GMT]
Pungkudutheevu police recovered Friday evening a male body with assault injuries near Thengka’n Thidal Pi’l’laiyaar Koayil in Pungkudutheevu in the islets of Jaffna and handed it over to Jaffna Teaching Hospital mortuary Saturday morning, sources in Jaffna said. The victim had gone from Vanni to visit his relatives in Pungkudutheevu and was last seen waiting at Aaladi junction to travel back to Jaffna.
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Dead bodies located inside a toilet pit in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 May 2010, 15:45 GMT]
Members of a family recently resettled in Ka'neasapuram in Ki'iinochchi after being displaced from their house, located Saturday dead bodies of massacred victims, buried inside their toilet pit, sources in Ki'linochchi said. The house was located 1 km west of A9.
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Sinhalese Buddhists celebrate Vesak grandly in the North

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 May 2010, 18:46 GMT]
Sinhalese Buddhists from South and the government armed forces in the North celebrated Thursday and Friday the annual Buddhist Vesak festival in Jaffna, Ki’linochchi and Vanni in a grand scale in comparison with last year, sources in Jaffna said. Sri Lanka government provided full support for the celebrations while security measures were strengthened in Jaffna with 700 additional policemen deployed along with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, the sources added. Vehicles were not allowed near Duraippah Stadium where grand Vesak lanterns had been hoisted.
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UNICEF helps to re-establish maternal and child health facilities in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 May 2010, 17:20 GMT]
UNICEF Representative Philippe Duamelle and Minister of Economic Development, Basil Rajapakse Thursday re-opened the new facility of emergency obstetric and pediatric care at the Kil’inochchi General Hospital. In addition to the Ki’linochchi hospital, Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Philippe Duamelle also opened the Musali maternity building in Mannar district constructed by UNICEF. “This project will serve the health needs of thousands of women and children now returning back to their homes,” UNICEF Representative Philippe Duamelle said at the opening event in Ki’linochchi.
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Limestone in Valikaamam HSZ sent to Galle in South

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 May 2010, 16:58 GMT]
Thousands of Southern Sinhalese labourers are engaged in excavating lime stone in the Sri Lanka Amy (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North where its residents had been evicted by SLA, Jaffna MP, Appathurai Vinayagamoorthy accused in a press meet held in Jaffna Thursday. The excavated limestone is taken to the cement factories in Galle in ships and via A9 road, he further said. Government which does not permit the evicted residents of Valikaamam North to resettle in their own places has freely allowed thousands of Sinhalese labourers to work within the HSZ.
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Banks to open six new branches in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 May 2010, 12:47 GMT]
Six new bank branches are to be opened next week in the Northern Province, according to a press release by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Wednesday. Of the six, three branches of the Peoples Bank - one in Kilinochchi, one in Maangku'lam and the third in Paranthan are to be opened on June 7. The Commercial Bank, Seylan Bank and Nations Trust Bank are scheduled to open one branch each in Kilinochchi on June 7 in Kilinochchi.
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Colombo conducts ‘fake’ conference in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 May 2010, 19:27 GMT]
Northern government department and corporation key officials urgently directed by their superiors to attend a conference Monday in Ki’linochchi in Vanni to discuss resettlement of people uprooted due to war in North were disillusioned to find that the conference failed to address the issues meant, participants in the conference said. The conference, attended by several key ministers including Wimal Weeravansa and Douglas Devananda besides many parliamentarians from the South, revealed the glaring absence of essential matters like allocation of funds for resettlement or definite plans for resettlement, the sources added. Colombo government has enacted another ‘drama’ to show the world that it is able to convene a conference in Ki’linochchi town just as the Liberation Tigers had done in their days, political circles in North said.
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Missing persons’ relatives hold demonstration in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 May 2010, 16:57 GMT]
Association of Tracing Missing Persons in the war organised a demonstration in front of Vavuniyaa bus stand Monday. Over five hundred persons, kith and kin and loved ones of the missing persons from Vavuniyaa and Ki'linochchi participated in the demonstration carrying placards demanding the Sri Lankan government authority to reveal the real situation as what happened to over twelve thousand 12,000 persons who were either arrested, abducted or went missing during the final stages of the war.
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Jaffna SLA blocks efforts to reopen schools, government buildings closed due to war in North

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 May 2010, 17:05 GMT]
A conference is to be held Monday in Ki’linochchi to discuss the reopening of the schools in Vanni which remain closed due to war as the government of Sri Lanka shows that it is trying to restore normalcy in the North, sources in Ki’linochchi said. Meanwhile, the Ministries of Public Administration and Defence are to conduct a conference in Colombo soon to explore ways to reopen the schools and government buildings that are being occupied in the North for ten to twenty years. Jaffna SLA Commander, however, is said to be hindering this move as the opening of the schools and government buildings will call for the resettlement of the people uprooted from Valikaamam North, sources Jaffna said.
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106 schools closed, 60000 students deprived of education in north

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 May 2010, 08:13 GMT]
At least sixty thousand children are deprived of their education after the war that concluded last year due to the closure of 106 schools in Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu, Thu'nukkaai, Vavuniyaa North and Mannaar. Nearly 62,944 uprooted persons from Vanni are still detained in internment camps in Vavuniyaa, parliamentarian of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Thursday claimed at a media briefing held in Colombo.
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Colombo, SLA 'poking spear into an unhealed wound' : JUSU

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 May 2010, 10:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka government and its army celebrating their Vanni war victory in the the North and East while the Tamils continue to suffer bearing the wounds inflicted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vanni is like ‘poking spear into an unhealed wound’, Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) said in a media message titled Monday in Jaffna. Meanwhile, SLA key officials took part in several ‘Victory Celebrations’ held in Vanni mainland while people travelling along A9 road were kept waiting on sides for nearly four hours Monday while SLA conducted its celebration event in Ki’linochchi, sources in Jaffna said.
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6 Jaffna Halo Trust deminers injured in accident

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 May 2010, 16:25 GMT]
A vehicle transporting deminers of Halo Trust, a humanitarian organization, on its way to Halo Trust office in Jaffna from Ki’linochchi met with an accident Friday injuring six women deminers, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, a male deminer engaged in demining in Mirusuvil in Thenmaraadchchi was seriously injured when a landmine went off unexpectedly, the sources added.
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