Vaharai starves

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 November 2006, 10:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers staffing Mankerny check post continuously refuse to allow food being taken to the Internally Displaced People (IDP) in Vaharai area creating urgent humanitarian crisis with severe shortage of food, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian P. Ariyanenthiran accused Tuesday. Four lorries with emergency food items had procured permission from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) permission, Mankerny SLA still denied permission to proceed to Vaharai saying that the area was under attack, Mr P. Ariyanenthiran said.
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Up-country Tamils shun work mourning Raviraj's assassination

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 11:55 GMT]
Tamil workers shunned work Tuesday in the central Sri Lanka, and a complete shut down was observed in all the up-country towns, as a mark of protest against the assassination of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Raviraj and the Vaharai killings of Internally Displaced People (IDPs), Hatton sources said. P. Chandrasegaran, Minister and the leader of Up-country People's Front (UPF) organised the protest.
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UN: Sri Lanka military ‘recruiting child soldiers’

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 November 2006, 13:15 GMT]
A United Nations official Monday accused Sri Lankan government security forces of recruiting child soldiers on behalf of an allied paramilitary group which is also fighting Tamil Tigers. The special advisor to the UN Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Allan Rock, told reporters in Colombo that he had evidence of direct involvement of troops in forcibly enlisting children for the paramilitary group.
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Canada condemns killing of Vakarai IDPs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 November 2006, 05:55 GMT]
Mr. Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Friday condemned the shelling of civilians in a camp for internally displaced persons near the town of Vakarai in eastern Sri Lanka on November 8, 2006.
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Tamil Americans call for moratorium on military aid to Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 November 2006, 03:12 GMT]
Expressing condemnation over killing of at least 65 internally displaced people (IDPs) who were seeking shelter in a school in Vakarai by the government of Sri Lanka," a joint press release issued by Tamil organizations in the US Friday, called upon the international community to "impose a moratorium on military assistance to GOSL," and urged "the co-chairs of the peace process to explore modalities that will allow the peoples on the island of Sri Lanka to live with dignity, to determine their political and economic future without interference, and to ensure regional security."
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Batticaloa, Amparai shut down in protest of Vaharai killings

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2006, 12:18 GMT]
Batticaloa and Amparai districts came to a standstill in response to a call made by Parliamentarian P. Ariyanenthiran, on behalf of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), to the people of both the districts to observe total shut down on Friday, as an expression of their united appeal to the International Community to exert pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to stop killing Tamil civilians, sources in Batticaloa said.
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Stop genocide against Tamils - TNA appeals to UN

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 November 2006, 01:20 GMT]
19 Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians led by Mr. R. Sampanthan, Leader of the TNA Parliamentary group and Member of Parliament for Trincomalee district, protested Thursday at 11:00 a.m in front of United Nations office in Colombo condemning the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) bombing of Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Vaharai and Kathiravelli, killing 53 civilians and seriously injuring 127, sources in Colombo said. The protesters urged the United Nations to urgently intervene to stop the "genocide against Tamils let loose by the Sri Lanka government."
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SLA denied transport to Vaharai injured for 3 hours- Elilan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 November 2006, 11:56 GMT]
Sri Lankan Army (SLA) has not only killed 42 civilians and injured more than 122 others in Kathiravely in LTTE controlled Batticaloa district but has violated all humanitarian norms by delaying giving permission to ambulances to take the injured to the hospital, S Elilan, the Political Head of LTTE for Trincomalee district said Wednesday.
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UNP demands inquiry into Vaharai killings

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 November 2006, 02:46 GMT]
Mr.Tissa Attanayake, General Secretary of the UNP, the main opposition United National Party (UNP), in a statement released in Colombo Thursday, condemned the killing of civilians in Vaharai division in Batticaloa district and called on the government to hold immediate proper inquiry into this tragedy, sources said.
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Sonobo Children’s Home in Vaharai attacked, 12 children injured - TRO

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 November 2006, 11:07 GMT]
Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), engaged in emergency rescue work at the IDP camp in Kathiraveli school Wednesday evening, said TRO’s Sonobo Children’s Home located close to the school was also attacked by SLA artillery. 12 children were wounded. Forty bodies have been recovered including 6 babies between the ages of 3 and 6 months, the TRO statement said. 76 persons have been admitted to the hospital.
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40 civilian refugees killed in Sri Lankan artillery attack

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 November 2006, 08:17 GMT]
Emergency Rescue workers in Vaharai say scores of civilians were killed Wednesday around 11:35 a.m. when Sri Lanka Army fired Multi-Barrel Rockets and artillery shells targeting Kathiraveli, a coastal hamlet 15 km north of Vaaharai, hit a school where five thousand Internally Displaced People had sought refuge. 40 dead bodies have been recovered. Six babies below 6-month were killed, said medical sources stating that 30 dead bodies had been brought to Vaaharai hospital. SLMM officials and the ICRC visited the area where more than 120 houses were severely damaged. An area with 2 km perimeter was indiscriminately bombed. 60 severely wounded civilians were brought to Valaichenai hospital.
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SLAF bombs Vaharai, IDPs flee SLA shelling

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 November 2006, 11:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched artillery attacks from Valaichenai SLA camp and Karadikulam SLA camp towards Vaharai intensified since Sunday night amid troop deployment at Gajuwatte SLA camp. LTTE's Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan Monday said Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) carried out 2 sorties of aerial bombardment in Paalchenai and Vammivedduvan in Vaharai region in Batticaloa district Monday noon. "All communication and transportation facilities towards Vaharai has been cut off. Even the small amount of humanitarian supplies reaching the region twice a week, has been blocked by the Sri Lankan military," Mr. Ilanthirayan told TamilNet.
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SLA mortar attack kills father, son in Vaharai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 November 2006, 09:23 GMT]
A father and son were killed on the spot in a mortar attack launched by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from its Mankerny camp in Batticaloa on Vaharai, a village in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held territory in Batticalo, Friday around 8:30 a.m. The shells launched continuously by the SLA on and around the temporary shelters of the internally displaced people (IDP) in this area fall and explode causing the IDPs to flee in fear in all directions, said sources from Vaharai.


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SLAF Kfir jets bomb LTTE held villages in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 November 2006, 10:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir bombers bombed civilian settlements nine times Wednesday around 7:15 a.m in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held areas of Kattumurivu in Kathiraveli in Batticaloa district. Casualties in this bombing are not yet known but 12 houses of civilians are said to be badly damaged.
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15 dead, 55 thousand families homeless due to floods in South

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 October 2006, 14:30 GMT]
Fourteen persons including an eight-year old child were killed and about fifty five thousand families have been rendered homeless in the south of Sri Lanka following heavy rain and landslides in the last two days, social services department sources said. Internally displaced persons about two hundred thousand people have been sheltered in temporary shelters located in schools and public buildings, according to the same sources.
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TNA appeals to UN: "GoSL uses Humanitarian crisis as tool of war"

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 October 2006, 06:36 GMT]
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) consisting 22 out of the 23 Tamil members elected to Sri Lankan Parliament from the NorthEast, in an appeal to the United Nations High Commissioners for Human Rights and Refugees, said that the Government of Sri Lanka was using the humanitarian crisis as a tool of war. Detailing the humanitarian situation prevailing in all the districts of NorthEast, the TNA charged that the GoSL was engaged in a policy to drive the Tamil civilian population out of the Trincomalee District. The TNA's appeal to UN comes a day before the talks in Geneva.
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TNA urges LTTE to prioritize opening of A9, warns humanitarian catastrophe in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 October 2006, 18:34 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in an urgent letter to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Thursday, noting that the humanitarian situation in Jaffna has reached critical levels since the closure of the A9 highway, appealed the Tigers to take-up the opening of the A9 highway as a matter of top priority at the forthcoming talks in Geneva. Sri Lanka Army conrolled Jaffna, with 653,755 persons, requires 11,000 Metric tons of food supplies per month. For the last three months, only 14,000 Metric tons of food items had been sent by ship, the short fall is 19,000 Metric tons. The fuel that is currently available is grossly inadequate.
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Two civilians injured in Valaichenai shootings

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 October 2006, 15:45 GMT]
Unidentified persons waiting in ambush opened fire seriously injuring a youth riding his bicycle for work, at Kinnaiady in Valaichenai police division in Batticaloa Tuesday around 6:40 a.m, Valaichenai police said. In a separate incident, a woman, 30, was caught in the cross fire between two rival groups and was seriously injured around 11:00 a.m, at Vinayagapuram in the same police division.
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Jaffna faces humanitarian catastrophe

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 October 2006, 12:24 GMT]
Closure of A9, the only trunk road to Jaffna from rest of Sri Lanka, more than 10 weeks ago, has halted the flow of essential food provisions, and medical supplies to Jaffna Peninsula, and if urgent steps are not taken, the residents will face severe humanitarian crisis, civil society leaders in Jaffna warned Monday. Jaffna residents face malnutrition and imminent starvation; and shortage of medical supplies and doctors, have wreaked havoc with the peninsula's fragile health care system, hospital and Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) sources said.
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Nimalarajan remembered by Jaffna Journalists

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 October 2006, 00:05 GMT]
North Lanka Journalist Association (NLJA) assisted by Jaffna journalists observed 6th death anniversary of Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, BBC correspondent and a senior journalist, Thursday, civil society sources in Jaffna said. Members of the paramilitary Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) are widely believed to have been responsible for the 19 October 2000 killing.
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