Miliband cosmetically presents catalogue of failures

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 October 2009, 01:18 GMT]
British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs David Miliband on Tuesday presented a written statement to the House of Commons on the 'developments' in the island of Sri Lanka since his last visit in April in response to his concerns on minimising humanitarian impact, strengthening of the rule of law to address human rights and on setting out a political process to address the grievances of 'minorities'. Tamil circles find nothing worthy has been achieved in the last six months but the cosmetic presentation of the catalogue of failures by Mr. Miliband raises concern in them whether the British government is up for appeasement with the aggressive elements in the island.
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SLA forcibly takes 99 IDPs from Pulmoaddai to Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 October 2009, 15:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) forcibly took away ninety-nine internally displaced men between the age of 40 and 50 detained in camps located in Pulmoaddai to Vavuniyaa internment camp in eight vehicles without prior notice. SLA soldiers arrived at Pulmoaddai camp Friday night around 8:00 p.m and through public address system called out the names of ninety-nine IDPs. They were bundled into the vehicles when they came out of the camp in response to the call. They are all heads of families. They are now held in Ne’luku’lam camp in Vavuniyaa, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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SLA denies permission to Thirumavalavan to meet public in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 October 2009, 07:26 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Jaffna turned down the request of Thol. Thirumavalavan, Tamil Nadu Parliamentarian and leader of Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Kadchi (VCK) Party, to meet the public in Jaffna when the delegation of Tamil Nadu MPs was taken to Jaffna Public Library for a meeting Sunday, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Jaffna University Students expressed their strong protest against India for having let down the Eezham Tamils and for deceiving them continually, when the MPs met students in Jaffna University Sunday, the sources added.
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Release 250,000 Tamils from illegal detention immediately, HRW tells Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2009, 20:40 GMT]
Pointing out that "[d]eteriorating conditions, including a shortage of water since October 5, 2009, combined with the prospect of flooding during the imminent monsoon season, have led to rising tensions among camp residents and clashes with the military," New York based rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch (HRW), called on international donors Japan, the United States and European Union member states "to send a clear message to the Government of Sri Lanka that continued detention of the displaced will have serious consequences for Sri Lanka's relationship with the international community."
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SLN holds IDPs as prisoners in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2009, 17:49 GMT]
Nearly five thousand Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) brought to the islets of Jaffna from Vavuniyaa camps are being held by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) within newly constructed internment camps without allowing them to go out of the camps or to meet their relatives, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, some of the IDPs handed over to their relatives and held in abandoned houses too are not permitted by the SLN to leave their places or to meet their relatives, NGO representatives in Jaffna said.
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Tamil Nadu MPs delegation to see IDP internment camps

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 October 2009, 11:45 GMT]
Eight Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu, from the ruling Congress Party and its supporting political parties Dravida Munetra Kazhakam (DMK) and Viduthalai Chiruththaikal (VCK) are expected to arrive in Colombo Sunday and from there they will be taken to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa where the Vannin IDPs are detained, sources in Colombo said. Meanwhile, opposition parties in Tamil Nadu and India including Communist Party have expressed their strong protest for not having included any MP from the opposition or prominent leaders who had stood up for Eezham Tamils for many years. Sri Lanka government intends to take this delegation on a ‘guided tour’ to ‘selected spots’ in an effort to hide the true conditions under which the IDPs are suffering, representatives of IDP welfare organizations said.
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Disabled IDP youth gains admission to Jaffna medical faculty

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 October 2009, 12:46 GMT]
An Internally Displaced Tamil youth who lost both legs during the final battle launched by Sri Lanka Army against Liberation Tigers in Vanni region and held in Vavuniyaa internment camp had gained admission to the medical faculty of the Jaffna University. He has been admitted to the medical faculty and is attending lectures, according to Vice-chancellor Professor N. Shanmugalingam.
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Netherlands Ambassador to Sri Lanka visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2009, 21:19 GMT]
Netherlands Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Leoni Cuelenare and an official, Gerrit Noordam from the Embassy were in Jaffna Wednesday where they held detailed discussion on matters related to the rehabilitation of Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa, sources in Jaffna said. Jaffna Government Agent (GA), K. Ganesh, Director of Planning, Pratheepan and high SLA officers took part in the discussion.
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Acute health problems among children in Vavuniyaa IDP internment camps

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2009, 14:23 GMT]
Twenty-five percent of children in IDP camps in Vavuniya suffer from acute malnutrition while 40 percent of them are anaemic, according to a report on Nutrition Among Post Conflict Displaced Children in Vavuniya. The report further says that 41.9% of the children have diahorreal diseases and 17.2% are low weight babies.
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Tamils facing “cultural annihaliation” by SL Government: Australian Politician

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 October 2009, 05:10 GMT]
“It may be argued that the Tamil people have a legitimate right to self-determination but what is essential now is that we must see an end to the oppressive and discriminatory policies of the victorious Sri Lankan Government” urged Greens MLC Ian Cohen in an address to the Australian Parliament on September 24th. Highlighting the “potential humanitarian catastrophe” faced by almost 300,000 refugees who “despite their desire and capacity to return home they are being held prisoner”, Cohen described the Governments treatment of Tamils as “a litany of injustice, cultural annihilation and human rights atrocities”. Meanwhile, a Tamil NGO official in Vavuniyaa, while welcoming the interest of Australian politicians, said they should also come forward to "first address the question of double standards, employed by their government, between issues such as East Timor and Eezham.”
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Colombo has plans to colonize North with Buddhist Sinhalese – Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 October 2009, 17:06 GMT]
The government of Sri Lanka is actively engaged in colonizing Ki’linochchi, Mullaiththeevu and Jaffna district with Sinhalese Buddhists in order to crush the demand for Eelam in the traditional homelands of the Tamils in the North, Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna parliamentarian, said in a press meet held Monday in his Jaffna office. He further accused the government for not accepting help from International Community in de-mining Vanni as it does not want the persons from foreign countries to see the mass graves of civilians killed by its armed forces in the Vanni during the war. The MP also said that though the government says that it had resettled 40,000 IDPs from Vavuniyaa internment camps, 95% of them have been again detained in new internment camps in their respective home districts under the direct control of Sri Lankan forces.
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UNHCR helps stranded pregnant IDPs to leave Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 October 2009, 15:28 GMT]
Officials of the UNHCR Monday sent a batch of 124 pregnant IDPs with their relatives to Jaffna. They had been staying in the wedding hall of the Vavuniyaa Sivan Koayil from September 29 since the refusal of permission by the Sri Lanka stating that they were not issued with proper clearance by the civil authority.
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CID arrests 3 Tamil youths at Medawachchiya

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 October 2009, 19:24 GMT]
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sri Lanka has arrested three Tamil youths, two of them on Sunday and the third on Monday at Medawachchiya check point while they were on their way to Colombo from Vavuniyaa, according to their relatives.
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2000 IDPs in Menik Farm camp identified with special needs

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 October 2009, 16:21 GMT]
Around two thousand Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in Zone 3 camp in Menik Farm alone in Vavuniyaa have been identified with special needs. Among them are children, women and others who have lost limbs, eye sight, and hearing in the war. Some children born with deformity have also been identified in Zone 3 camp, civil authorities in Vavuniyaa said.
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Sri Lanka's internment camps for Tamils: experience of an inmate

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 October 2009, 09:37 GMT]
South Asia has never witnessed such a large scale, state-organized crime as one committed on Eezham Tamils by the government of Sri Lanka. Perhaps the world has never witnessed hitherto that such a crime of internment camps for civilians could be initiated collectively by all the powers of the world and the UN, and could be left like this without anyone being able to do anything about it. A civilian woman who was a captive in the Zone 3 of the internment camp of Menik Farm for four months, and managed to come out by ‘other means’ a month ago, writes on her experience in the camp – an indelible shame for the so-called civilised world.
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IDP pregnant mothers stranded in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 October 2009, 04:02 GMT]
124 internally displaced families including several pregnant mothers who were allowed to leave Menik Farm in Vavuniyaa to go to their places in Jaffna on September 29 are stranded in Vavuniyaa town without Sri Lanka Army (SLA) clearance to proceed to Jaffna. These IDPs were brought down from Menik Farm on September 29 and dropped at Vavuniyaa bus stand the same day midnight, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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Bank officer released, wife under detention

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 October 2009, 03:58 GMT]
The wife of a Tamil State bank officer Mr. V. Gnanorathan is still being held in detention by the State Intelligence Unit of the Sri Lanka Army. Gnanorathan was released Saturday. Wellawatte police arrested both a few days ago from their residence in Wellawatte on information received following the arrest of medical specialist Dr. Maheswaran Umakanth serving in Vavuniyaa general hospital.
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IDPs in Vavuniyaa camps cannot settle in Jaffna without SLA clearance

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 October 2009, 16:06 GMT]
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Jaffna held in Vavuniyaa camps, on their release from the camps, cannot get back to Jaffna without obtaining the ‘clearance’ of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna, according to Jaffna Government Agent (GA), K. Ganesh. 30 expectant mothers and their families released from Vavuniyaa camps are from Jaffna and their particulars have been submitted to the SLA authorities in Jaffna, he further said. However, he did not say anything about their fate if SLA refuses permission for them to be brought to Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said.
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Each IDP family in Vavuniyaa camp gets only 15 liter water daily – JVP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 October 2009, 08:57 GMT]
The Monitoring Centre of the Vanni IDPs in Vavuniyaa camps said Saturday that it had received 723 complaints so far relating to food, clothes, and health and toilets facilities. The monitoring centre is set up by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The convener of the centre Mr.Wijitha Herat, JVP parliamentarian, said fifteen liters of water are supplied to each family per day to meet all needs.
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Duplicitous Colombo bereft of excuses on holding internees - ICG

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 October 2009, 22:25 GMT]
Andrew Stroehlein, International Crisis Group's Communications Director, during his testimony to the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights on the situation in Sri Lanka Thursday, noted the poor and deteriorating conditions in the internment camps where more than 264,000 Tamils are being held by Colombo, and said, "[t]he worst kind of duplicity was seen just a few weeks ago, when the [Sri Lanka] government announced it had released 10,000 displaced persons. In fact, we know at least 3,300 people had been moved from an internment camp to another detention facility," and added, "Sri Lankan government has run out of excuses for continuing to keep these hundreds of thousands of innocent people prisoner."
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