‘From one prison to another’: Sri Lanka’s ‘resettlement’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 08:31 GMT]
Under international pressure as the monsoon looms, the Sri Lanka government is hastily engaged in relocating some of the displaced Tamils being held in militarised internment camps in Vavuniyaa. However, the inmates are being moved from Vavuniyaa’s barbed-wire ringed camps to similar overcrowded enclosures without facilities in other districts, sources in Jaffna said. Moreover these camps are also located in low-lying terrain in the path of oncoming floods, NGO workers say. “There is no resettlement. This is like being sent from one prison to another prison," Mavai Senathiraja, a parliamentarian from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said.
Full story >>

Students detained in Vavuniyaa camps to be used as showpieces

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 05:55 GMT]
The students from Ki’linochchi, Mullaiththeevu, Vavuniyaa and Mannaar districts, now detained in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa, are to be taken like prisoners under military and police guard to participate in a Sports Meet that is to be held in Jaffna Alfred Duraippa Stadium from Friday for three days, sources in Jaffna said. The students thus brought to Jaffna will be taken back to the SLA internment camps in Vavuniyaa at the end of the sports meet, the sources added.
Full story >>

SLA massacred civilians in bunkers - medical worker

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 08:57 GMT]
The advancing Sri Lanka Army massacred civilians by paving their bunkers with tanks, by throwing explosives inside the bunkers and by shooting the injured, says a medical worker who came out of Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal during the last days of the war, became incarcerated in a camp and now escaped the island. "Around a hundred thousand captured civilians herded to Mullaiththeevu were kept in rows within barbed wires, most of the time without water or food under the hot sun, and were bullied and ill treated with arrogance," he writes in a lengthy note that reached TamilNet this week. The note in Tamil was provided by the Norwegian Tamils Health Organisation (NTHO), urging TamilNet not to reveal the identity of the health worker for reasons of his security.
Full story >>

Tamil woman arrested in Wellawatte

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 10:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka police arrested a Tamil woman in Wellawatte Monday while staying in a lodge making preparation to travel abroad. She is being detained by the police and interrogated by the Terrorist Investigation Unit, police sources said.
Full story >>

900 million rupees allocated for constructing NPC secretariat in Maangku'lam

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 August 2009, 11:01 GMT]
The Cabinet of United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by President Mahinda Rajapakse Wednesday approved 1525 million rupees to establish the Secretariat of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) in Maangku’lam in Ki’linochchi district. The allocation is also to be utilized to repair destroyed or damaged local government offices in the cleared areas.
Full story >>

600 Hindu, Catholic priests allowed to leave internment camps in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 August 2009, 16:04 GMT]
Government of Sri Lanka Wednesday freed around 600 Hindu and Catholic priests who were held in internment camps in Vavuniyaa. They had fled Vanni when Sri Lanka Army launched its military operation against LTTE in Vanni region. A total of 571 Hindu priests, six Catholic priests and two nuns were allowed out while 220 nuns are still held in the camps.
Full story >>

4 Vanni doctors released on conditional bail

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 August 2009, 16:15 GMT]
Three doctors and a medical superintendent, who had worked in Vanni and later arrested and grilled by the Sri Lankan authorities alleging that they made pro-LTTE statements, were released on conditional personal bail for a sum of one million rupees each Monday by the Colombo Chief Magistrate Mr. Nishantha Hapuarachchi. The doctors were ordered to appear before the Vavuniya CID every Sunday and also they have been instructed to reside in Vavuniyaa and not in any other place, legal sources said.
Full story >>

Government plans to hold Vanni IDPs in camps for longer period

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 August 2009, 17:20 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) has instructed government authorities to set up offices in Vavuniyaa and its surrounding area to carry out the administration of Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts in Vanni which had ceased to function due to the war on Vanni, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Though it is said that the above decision has been taken due to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) refusal to resettle Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in their own villages in the near future, the real intention of the government is to hold the Vanni IDPs in the detention camps permanently, the sources added.
Full story >>

Sri Lanka to train Pakistan army in Tamil land

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 August 2009, 07:20 GMT]
“We received a request from Pakistan to train their officers on our small team operations, so we have decided to open several new training schools in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Vavuniya to train local and foreign military officers,” said Colombo’s new Army Chief Jagath Jayasuriya, reported, Daily Mirror, Friday. The newspaper further quoted the military chief saying that there was a big demand from foreign countries to have their forces trained by Sri Lanka. But Political observers said that it was a ploy of Colombo, Pakistan and probably some others too, to check the current presence of Indians in Vanni.
Full story >>

Patkunam Yogeswary appointed Mayor of JMC

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 17:29 GMT]
Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) in Jaffna said in a press release Tuesday that Ms. Patkunam Yogeswary has been appointed as the Mayor of Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC), and its senior member Thurairajah Illango, alias Regan, as Deputy Mayor by Social Service Minister Douglas Devananda. Civil society sources in Jaffna, however, said Ms. Yogeswary was appointed Mayor though Thurairajah Illango had polled more preferential votes than Ms. Yogeswary, mainly to due to pressure from Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), one of the coalition member party in the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA).
Full story >>

Supreme Court to inquire FR petition by IDP family against illegal detention

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 August 2009, 04:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Thursday granted leave to proceed with the fundamental rights violation petition filed on behalf of members of one family who are detained in an Internally Displaced Persons’ Camp (IDP Camp) in Vavuniya against their wishes, and listed the case for hearing on November 12, legal sources in Colombo said. The bench comprised Justices Nihal Gamini Amaratunge and Chandra Ekanayake. The petition alleged infringement of plaintiffs' fundamental rights to equality, equal protection of the law, as well as their right to the freedom of movement and of choosing their residence within Sri Lanka.
Full story >>

Details emerge on Tamil media workers killed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 00:52 GMT]
TamilNet recently compiled details on Tamil journalists and media workers confirmed killed during the height of war in Vanni, between March and May. The list is not exhaustive. These media persons, committed to the human cause and engaged in the noble task of bringing out information to the people inside and to the world outside, have laid down their lives in achieving what the international media shamefully couldn't accomplish. TamilNet will be serialising compilations on the losses of other humanitarian workers too in due course.
Full story >>

SLASA appeals for the immediate release of Ki’linochchi GA, Vethanayagan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 19:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka Administrative Service Association (SLASA), while strongly condemning the arrest of Ki’linochchi Government Agent (GA), S. Vethanayagan, by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials on 30 July 2009, extended a public appeal to the authorities concerned to release him immediately, sources in Colombo said.
Full story >>

Indians need three years to clear mines

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 August 2009, 11:36 GMT]
It will take one-and-a-half to two years to do away with most land mines and another year to declare the areas safe for habitation, reported Times of India, Sunday, citing Indian Army’s retired Major General Prem K. Puri who is heading one of the Indian outfits engaged in de-mining the North and East. Meanwhile, 82 more former Indian soldiers have gone to Sri Lanka last week to join the hundreds or perhaps thousands already operating under the care of Colombo’s National Steering Committee. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s insistence on ‘de-mining first’ to free civilians from the concentration camps and India sitting on international intervention raise serious concern in Tamil circles, how long both the Establishments are going to continue the ‘human shield’ in fulfilling their agenda.
Full story >>

Ki'linochchi GA arrested under PTA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2009, 20:42 GMT]
Ki'linochchi District Government Agent, Nagalingam Vethanayagam was abducted Thursday night by a group of persons who arrived in a vehicle at his temporary residence in Vavuniyaa. On Friday, the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) informed Mr. Vethanayagam's family that he has been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and that he has been taken to Colombo for further inquiries.
Full story >>

New SLA Commander meets North-East commanders in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2009, 02:34 GMT]
The newly appointed Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, met all the Security Forces Commanders of Jaffna, Vanni, Mullaitheivu, Killinochchi, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampaarai and other senior Field Commanders in the North and East, for the first time after his assumption of duties, at the Vanni Security Forces headquarters located in Vavuniyaa Saturday. During the conference special attention was drawn to the security situation in different regions in the North and East, media reports said.
Full story >>

Resettlement of IDPs within 180 days not possible – SL Minister

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 July 2009, 06:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka Minister of Electricity and Energy, Aluthananda Gamage told media in Jaffna Saturday that it will not be possible to resettle Vanni IDPs in Ki’linochchi within 180 days. Aluthananda Gamage, who is staying in Jaffna to campaign in the forthcoming Jaffna Municipal Council also said that the opening of the A9 route to public will be considered only after decisions are made in a Defence Ministry conference on the issue. Meanwhile, Basil Rajapakse, brother of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse and his advisor, had inaugurated the bus service from Jaffna to Colombo Wednesday declaring that the service will be conducted every other day in a week in a much publicized event.
Full story >>

Amnesty calls for war crimes probe after doctors paraded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 July 2009, 00:29 GMT]
Amnesty International Friday called for “a systematic and independent investigation of allegations of war crimes” and said such an investigation “must include confidential interviews with witnesses - most of whom are currently detained in government internment camps.” Responding to Sri Lanka’s parading of five Tamil doctors this week in which the men retracted accounts of mass civilians casualties they had issued amid a Sri Lankan government offensive, Amnesty pointed out that “the Sri Lankan authorities have a long history of extracting confessions by force and compelling detainees to give media interviews that support the government's position.”
Full story >>

Vanni doctors forced to give false statement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 July 2009, 17:36 GMT]
5 Tamil doctors being held by the Sri Lankan authorities say they expect to be released, after being paraded to local and international media on Wednesday when they were made to claim that they had exaggerated civilian casualty figures in the final phases of the war at the request of the LTTE. Meanwhile, health workers who have escaped Vanni have slammed the international community for allowing the detainment of the doctors and questioned the validity of their statements in light of the 'precarious position' they face.
Full story >>

Sinister thinking behind Tamil incarceration: Doctor John Whitehall

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 July 2009, 17:22 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Governments thinking that “the concept of Tamil autonomy or freedom or even culture should be beaten to its knees and never rise again” can be compared to the actions of Joseph Stalin, said leading Australian Pediatrician Dr John Whitehall, describing government internment facilities as “concentration camps”, and saying the imprisonment of 300,000 refugees was much more sinister than he originally thought. "The concept that you can indefinitely incarcerate a population to change their thinking is frightening," he observed.
Full story >>