EPRLF releases election manifesto in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 March 2010, 18:03 GMT]
Eelam People’s Revolutionary Front (EPRLF) released its election manifesto Sunday around 10:00 a.m in a press meet at EPRLF Pathmanaba faction office on Hospital Road in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. EPRLF and People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) are jointly contesting in Jaffna and Vavuniyaa districts in the forthcoming parliamentary election. The EPRLF election manifesto was released by Sritharan, the leader of EPRLF Varathar faction. A political solution based on the right to self- determination in the Tamil provinces, creating a true democratic atmosphere and implementing speedy economic development are the main propaganda aspects mentioned in the manifesto.
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Government engaged in Sinhalese colonization in Kokkaavil – Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 March 2010, 18:17 GMT]
Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) former Jaffna parliamentarian and a TNA candidate contesting Jaffna electorate, accused Sri Lanka government of systematically colonizing Kokkaavil in Mullaiththevu district along A9 road with Sinhalese, in the TNA election campaign meeting held Thursday in Chuzhipuram-Tholpuram area, sources in Jaffna said. He also accused Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers and soldiers of dismantling the vehicles abandoned by Vanni residents when they were driven to Mu’l’livaaikkaal and selling the parts in Vavuniyaa and Anuradapura making huge profit.
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‘Vanni Mouse’ wins best fiction award in international film festival

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2010, 18:01 GMT]
A Tamil short film directed by a diaspora Eezham Tamil winning the best award in an international festival is seen as a first with the short film titled ‘Vanni Mouse’, which has won the best film award in the fiction category in the nine-day 11th International Short and Independent Film Festival (ISIFF) at the Shaukat Osman auditorium of Central Public Library in Dhaka on Friday. Commenting on the award, Barrister S. J. Joseph of Eelavar Cine Arts Council, based in London told TamilNet on Monday that this was the first time an Eezham Tamil artist being awarded at an international film festival.
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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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Police collect information of Vanni IDPs living out of refugee camps in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 March 2010, 18:37 GMT]
Tamil Nadu police and its intelligence unit personnel are actively engaged in collecting details of the persons internally displaced from Vanni during the later stages of war who had gone to Tamil Nadu in South India from the detention centres in Vavuniyaa, sources in Tamil Nadu said. Information is being gathered particularly of those who are living with their relatives and friends in Tamil Nadu. Involvement of Sri Lanka intelligence in this investigation is suspected as many Vanni IDPs from Vavuniyaa detention centres were abducted by SL intelligence department and forced into turning informers, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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SLA systematically terrorises female detainees

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 March 2010, 21:45 GMT]
Torture of female detainees in special camps of the Sri Lankan Army in Vavuniyaa continues to the extent of making many of the detainees insane, reports reaching from Vavuniyaa said. The torture is mainly carried out by female soldiers of the SLA, according to information provided by reliable civil society sources, which claim that they have hard evidence to prove it if there is any credible international investigation.
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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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TNA submits candidates’ list to contest Vanni district

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 February 2010, 18:25 GMT]
Tamil National Aliance (TNA) submitted Wednesday its list of candidates to contest Vanni district in the forthcoming parliamentary election at Vavuniyaa Secretariat, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Meanwhile, United National Party (UNP) is expected to submit Thursday its list of candidates contesting Jaffna district with Ms. Vijayakala Maheswaran, wife of late Thiyagarajah Maheswaran, former Colombo district parliamentarian, as its chief candidate.
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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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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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Three-pronged Sinhala colonization in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 February 2010, 04:52 GMT]
Ko’ndachchi-Chilaavaththu’rai, Thalaimannaar Pier and Madu in Mannaar district are being particularly targeted for Sinhala-Buddhist colonies by the colonial government in Colombo, news reports from Mannaar said Sunday. Everyday, colonizers with shelter-making facilities and boats are brought through Vilpattu from Puththa’lam district and from Medawachchiya of Anuradhapura district, news sources said adding that even this Sinhalicisation is carefully planned for Buddhicisation of the Tamil Muslim and Christian dominated district. The long-term impact of the process is sure to be felt in coastal Tamil Nadu and in Tamil relationship across the seas, whatever equation imperial India may have with Colombo, Tamil circles said. Meanwhile, diplomats and agencies of Establishments who try to con Tamils need serious education on what is genocide – the Sri Lankan model, diaspora circles commented.
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'Sri Lanka Navy responsible for abductions in Mannaar'

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 February 2010, 12:00 GMT]
Relatives of most of the disappeared persons in Mannaar district, who attended a discussion organised by Vavuniyaa Non-Violent Peace Organisation at Mannaar Divisional Secretariat on Friday have said that most of the disappeared were taken into 'custody' by the Sri Lanka Navy for 'interrogation'. The meeting was organised to collect details of the missing persons in the district. More than one hundred fifty civilians, majority of them were Tamils, had disappeared in the district during the last two years.
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Dead bodies of Vanni IDP male and female recovered in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 February 2010, 02:26 GMT]
Koappaay police recovered the bodies of a male and a female first year students of Management Faculty of Jaffna University, found floating in Eriyaku'lam pond in Irupaalai by residents on Tuesday. The two students, both IDPs from Vanni, boy hailing from Jaffna and the girl from Batticaloa, had rejoined the University after being held in Vavuniyaa Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camp in Vavuniyaa, University sources told TamilNet. Fear and tension prevails among the students of Jaffna University.
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SL parliament extends emergency another month

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 February 2010, 16:57 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s parliament Friday adopted a motion by a majority of eighty seven votes to extend the State of Emergency for another month. One hundred and two MPs of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) voted for the motion and fifteen from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) voted against. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) parliamentarians did not participate in the voting.
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Colombo not answerable to UN for 80,000 IDPs remaining in Vavuniyaa camps - Minister

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 February 2010, 13:01 GMT]
About eighty thousand Internally displaced persons from Vanni region still remain in camps located in Vavuniyaa despite Sri Lanka government's assurances to the United Nations that all IDPs will be resettled by January 31. Richard Badiudeen, Minister of Resettlement and disaster relief services, told Colombo media Monday that no such assurance has been given to any organization including UN.
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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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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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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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Tamil female undergrad arrested in Peradeniya University, now held in Boosa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 January 2010, 02:56 GMT]
Rasiah Dwaraka, the Tamil female undergrad of the Arts Faculty of the Peradeniya University arrested by the CID officials while she was in the lecture hall attending class in November last year is found held in Boosa detention camp, according to Upul Premaratne, Convener of the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF). She was earlier a resident of Kilinochchi.
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SLA harass relatives, friends visiting resettled IDPs in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 January 2010, 05:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers restrict and harass the relatives and friends of the small number of Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) allowed to resettle in Ki’linochchi, the IDPs said. SLA soldiers inspect the National Identity Cards of the relatives and friends of the IDPs visiting them besides registering their particulars. Meanwhile, the soldiers subject the IDPs to severe interrogation after the visitors had left and these harassments have made the IDPs to request their relatives and friends not to visit them.
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