Pilgrims to Paalaitheevu St. Antony’s church suspect presence of Chinese navy

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 March 2010, 15:11 GMT]
Pilgrims who returned from Paalaitheevu after attending the lent period prayers in St. Antony’s church Sunday said that they had seen many Chinese Tents and food packets with Chinese writing on them during the annual festival held Saturday and Sunday. Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) occupies many of the pilgrims’ halls behind the church and no one was allowed to enter them, the devotees said. Chinese navy presence in Kachchatheevu has been confirmed by Tamil Nadu journalists who had participated in the St. Antony’s Church festival recently, according to a Tamil daily in Tamil Nadu.
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Magistrate courts to be built in Vanni where IDPs are yet to be resettled

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 March 2010, 11:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka government is actively engaged in building police stations and magistrate courts in the districts of Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu in Vanni where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are yet to be resettled, sources in Vanni said. Secretary to the Ministry of Justice made a sudden visit Wednesday to Ki’linochchi and Mullaitheevu with the view to find locations for the magistrate courts to be built. He was accompanied by Buddhist Priest Rev. Athamba Buthara Kalyanasitha Thero and the magistrates of Vavuniyaa, Mannaar and the magistrates appointed to Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu, the sources added.
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Government engaged in setting up Sinhalese colonies in Vanni – Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 March 2010, 15:34 GMT]
“Sri Lanka government is actively engaged in colonizing the Vanni districts of Mannaar, Mullaiththeevu and Ki’linochchi with the families of armed force personnel and Sinhalese people,” Suresh Premachandran, former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian and one of the TNA candidates contesting Jaffna electoral district, said in a press briefing held Wednesday at his Jaffna office.
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100 Tamil youths taken to Boosa prison from Vavuniyaa detention camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 March 2010, 14:55 GMT]
Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) arrested Friday 100 Tamil youths detained in Ne'lukku'lam Technical College detention camp in Vavuniyaa for further interrogation and later took them to Boosa prison in the south, according to information given to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Colombo. Recently two groups of young Tamil women from some detention centres in Vavuniyaa had been arrested on two separate occasions and taken to Boosa prison, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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7 political parties submit nominations in Jaffna electorate until Thursday

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 February 2010, 07:20 GMT]
Five political parties submitted their lists of candidates contesting Jaffna electoral district in the parliamentary election at Jaffna Secretariat Thursday making a total of seven political parties contesting the election including Tamil Arasuk Kadchi (TAK) and Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, 3 independent groups have also submitted nomination lists Thursday, the sources added.
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Rift in SLFP circles in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 February 2010, 19:06 GMT]
Mahintha Thilakumara Udugama, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) organizer of Jaffna and Vanni, paid Thursday deposit money to contest as an independent candidate in Jaffna district as he was not included in the SLFP nomination list, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) accused the government for paying money to many independent groups to contest Jaffna district with the view to split the votes in Jaffna peninsula, the sources added.
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54 women detainees taken to Boosa prison from detention camps in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 February 2010, 13:15 GMT]
Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) arrested 54 women detainees from Pampaimadu and Cheddiku’lam Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps 18 February and took them to Boosa prison 19 February, according to information sent to Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) by Boosa prison authorities. Recently 49 women from the same camps in Vavuniyaa were arrested by TID and taken to Boosa prison for additional interrogation, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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2 more independent groups pay deposit to contest parliamentary election in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 February 2010, 03:37 GMT]
Murugesu Arumainayagam and Kasipillai Senthilvel from Jaffna paid their deposit money at Jaffna Secretariat Monday to contest as independent groups in Jaffna electoral district in the forthcoming parliamentary election. Meanwhile, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian paid a visit to Jaffna where he met Jaffna University society members to discuss the need to form an alternative political party in place of TNA, sources in Jaffna said.
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27 passengers injured in bus accident in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 February 2010, 02:37 GMT]
A public transport bus carrying mostly government employees and teachers fell into the roadside canal Monday early morning while trying to avoid colliding with a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) vehicle in Kunchchup Paranthan in Vanni, sources in Jaffna said. Eleven of the injured are admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital where three of them are in a critical condition, hospital sources said. Rest of the injured are admitted to Ki’linochchi government hospital.
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49 women detainees arrested in Vavuniyaa camps

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 February 2010, 01:57 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers arriving in vehicles 14 February took away 49 women from the SLA detainment camps in Valayamaa’ru, Cheddiku’lam and Pampaimadu in Vavuniyaa to Boosa camp, fellow detainees in the camps said. But camp authorities claimed that the women were arrested by Vavuniyaa Terrorism Investigation Department (TID).
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Government does not reveal true number of Vanni IDPs yet to be resettled

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 February 2010, 02:31 GMT]
Though the government of Sri Lanka reports that only less than 60,000 Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in the camps remain to be resettled, more than a hundred thousand of them have not been resettled in their own places but have sought refuge with their relatives and friends while some of them live in temporary sheds put up on government lands, according to Ki’linochchi District Secretariat sources. The government issues false figures so as to create a picture that all is going well according to plans with the resettlement of Vanni IDPs, they further said.
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'Madras Mail' passes away in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 February 2010, 03:38 GMT]
Madras Mail, the President of the Development Council of Tamil Traditional Arts, and a recognized Saiva scholar and dramatist passed away Tuesday in Jaffna Teaching Hospital (JTH) where he was admitted with heart ailment, sources in Jaffna said. Chelliah Madras Mail, a native of Puthukkudiruppu in Vanni, residing in Nalloor had dedicated himself to the task preserving and maintaining the Tamil traditional arts and drama and been the author of ‘Veazham Paduththa Veerangkanai’ Tamil drama which he directed and staged in many parts of Jaffna peninsula.
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Ki'linochchi to Mu'rika'ndi: no human beings, ghost buildings, stray cattle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 February 2010, 00:39 GMT]
A video footage taken a few days back, while travelling between Ki'linochchi and Mu'rika'ndi, shows the real situation in the heartland of Vanni in Tamil Eelam. The tract bustling with contended people two years back is virtually a no-man zone with ghost buildings and stray cattle today. The landscape is physical evidence to the genocide committed on a nation. The parties responsible for one of the worst crimes against humanity in the 21st century such as this, refuse to accept it, but hide it, coerce the victims not to talk about it and in various nuanced ways want to finish the genocide to its end, is the feeling of Eezham Tamils, both in the island and in the diaspora.
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Tamils undisputed champions of diaspora politics: Scottish writer

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 January 2010, 17:07 GMT]
“Unless there is a sea change in the factional Scottish parliament in the months ahead, it is a vote I will not be able to cast in a Scottish constitutional context,” writes Stuart Cosgrove, a Scot married to an Eezham Tamil, who cast his vote in that capacity in the referendum for Tamil Eelam in Mayhill, Glasgow, Saturday. In his column in Times Online, from the Sunday Times, he recollected the Scottish referendum of 1997 and sounded contentment about his participation in the Tamil referendum which in his view defied the new world order on the epic stage of global politics. Saying Tamils are undisputed champions of diaspora politics today, Cosgrove’s appreciation was that “it was a timely reminder that democracy is a precious gem that neither war nor national circumstances should tarnish.”
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Youth killed, dumped in well in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 January 2010, 03:05 GMT]
Ki’linochchi police recovered the body of a youth, hand and legs bound behind, tied to a stone and dumped into a well in Aananthapu’ram in Ki,’linochchi where some people have been permitted to resettle, sources in Ki’linochchi said. The youth, staying with his parents in one of the camps in Vavuniya, had gone to his brother’s place in Aananthapu’ram Sunday and had been reported missing since then to Ki’linochchi police.
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Voter turnout 18 percent in Jaffna, 55 percent in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 January 2010, 12:11 GMT]
While more than 70 percent all-island average turnout was reported in Colombo only 18 percent have voted in Jaffna, according to Jaffna Election Official S. Kuganathan. However, reports from Batticaloa said turnout was unusual this time, registering 55 percent.
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SLA take-over of buses disrupt IDPs transport to booths in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 January 2010, 10:38 GMT]
Voter turnout remained low in Ki'linochchi until 2:00 p.m. Only 27 persons had voted at a voting booth where 949 eligible voters were registered. Meanwhile, buses that were scheduled to transport the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Vavuniyaa camps to voting booths were taken by the Sri Lankan military, disrupting the transport of the voters. Following complaints to Election Commissioner, more than 5,000 IDP voters have been transported in buses that were brought from Jaffna, election officials in Vavuniyaa said.
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Only 5 percent voted in Jaffna till noon

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 January 2010, 08:26 GMT]
In Jaffna, only 5 percent voting took place until noon Tuesday and 25 percent may vote all together, reports from Jaffna said citing election officials. In the meantime, 30 percent turnout was registered in Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Ampaa'rai, where turnout is expected to reach 60 percent. Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu registered the lowest voting between one and two percent until noon.
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Polling cards delivery in Jaffna peninsula incomplete

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 January 2010, 03:20 GMT]
Polling cards of the registered voters have not been delivered completely in Jaffna as many of them are not at their addresses due to displacement and being evicted from the High Security Zones, civil society sources in Jaffna said. Many voters were seen searching for the registration particulars of their votes at Jaffna Secretariat until the last moment on Monday.
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Ballot boxes dispatched to polling booths in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 January 2010, 17:40 GMT]
Ballot boxes for the Tuesday presidential election are being sent with police and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) escorts from the District Secretariats in Jaffna and Vavuniyaa in the presence of election officers to the polling booths from Monday morning. Meanwhile, government has declared Wednesday, the day following presidential election day, as public holiday and countrywide curfew is expected to be imposed on Thursday, according to instructions given to police authorities, sources in Jaffna said.
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