SLN camps in the islets worse than Vavuniyaa internment centres

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 October 2009, 04:10 GMT]
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) hastily brought to the islets of Jaffna and held in Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) makeshift camps complained that they are detained in roofless houses without sufficient drinking water and basic facilities, sources in Jaffna said. The government which is only interested in relocating the IDPs in Vavuniyaa in the islets of Jaffna in a hurry to avoid congestion has left them in the hands of SLN without providing them any assistance, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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No signs of Jaffna IDPs in Vavuniyaa to be brought to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 October 2009, 11:30 GMT]
Only after bringing the entire Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the islets of Jaffna held in Vavuniyaa camps the IDPs from Vadamaraadchi East will be brought, Jaffna Government Agent (GA), K. Ganesh said. Of around 6,000 Islet IDPs held in Vavuniyaa camps nearly 3,000 have been brought in different batches until Wednesday to the islets of Jaffna where they are again detained in camps under the control of Sri Lanka Navy, sources in Jaffna said.
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Internment, poisoning hopes of reconciliation - Economist

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 October 2009, 05:29 GMT]
"The fate of a quarter of a million interned Tamils is poisoning Sri Lanka’s hopes of ethnic reconciliation....So long as Tamils feel abused by a racist Sinhalese state, the conflict may resume. Economic development of their shattered regions, which the government is planning, is unlikely to change that. Hence the government’s continued war-footing—but this is in turn also reinforcing Tamil grievances," a feature in the 1st October edition of The Economist said,
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Vavuniyaa camps meant for detainees, not for IDPs - JVP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2009, 17:51 GMT]
“It is not a refugee camp if inmates are escaping from that in large numbers. Then it should be called a detention or internment camp. IDP families have freedom to move in and out from IDP camps which are established under international norms. It is not so in Vavuniyaa camps, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) parliamentarian Wijitha Herat, said at a press briefing held at JVP headquarters in Battaramulla in Colombo Wednesday to discuss matters about the plight of IDPs in Vavuniyaa camps.
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Medical doctor arrested in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2009, 13:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Wednesday night arrested a visiting physician of the general hospital in Vavuniyaa, Dr. Maheswaran Umakanth, at his official residence in Kuruma'nkaadu, according to medical sources in the town.
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IDP from Vavuniyaa camp arrested by Kandy Police

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 October 2009, 02:31 GMT]
A member of an IDP family that fled from Vanni during last leg of military operation and detained in internment camp in Vavuniyaa was arrested by a special team of the Kandy police Sunday. The police team acting on the directions of Deputy Inspector Generals of Police Gamini Navaratne and Pujitha Jayasundara rushed to Chettikulam from Kandy and took the suspected IDP into custody, Police spokesperson Nimal Mediwake told media.
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IDPs to be held in the islets of Jaffna for indefinite period

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 11:24 GMT]
Around 3,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), originally from the islets of Jaffna held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa and brought to the islets of Jaffna recently will be continued to be held in detention camps under the control of Sri Lanka Navy, Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh said. The IDPs will be allowed to go their residences only if Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities issue the necessary clearance to them, he said.
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374 Vanni IDP families remain in Trinco transit centres

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 02:51 GMT]
Three hundred seventy four IDP families out of three hundred eight nine families brought to Trincomalee district from Vavuniyaa internment camps three weeks ago to be resettled in their villages are still held under detention in transit centres located in four schools under heavy security of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources in Trincomalee said.
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SL Army bus kills Tamil girl student in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 September 2009, 10:03 GMT]
An eleven year-old Tamil girl, Sarma Suhanthini, of Chaanthachoalai in Vavuniyaa died on the spot Friday around 6:00 p.m when a Sri Lanka Army bus, transporting troops from the north, knocked her down along Thaa’ndiku’lam-Vavuniyaa A-9 highway. The accident took place in front of Pramanthu Vithiyaalayam in Thaa’ndiku’lam, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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Indian envoy listens to preparations on IDPs withstanding monsoon

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 September 2009, 00:55 GMT]
The Indian High commissioner in Colombo, Mr. Alok Prasad, on Saturday visited internment camps in Vavuniyaa and held discussions with the militarised 'Competent Authority' for IDPs in the Northern Province, Maj. Gen. Kamal Goonaratne, and the Sri Lankan Government Agent for Vavuniyaa Mrs. Charles. Amidst all what have been listed by the Indian High Commission, as matters discussed by the High Commissioner, observers give much significance to his listening to briefings on making facilities for the internment camp mates to face flooding and water logging during the forthcoming monsoon. Tamil circles find it as tacit acceptance by India for prolonging the internment camps beyond this year's rainy season.
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‘Paranoid Colombo machinates IDP human shield’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2009, 13:43 GMT]
A whole world is duped in what Colombo is machinating in the name of resettlement of IDPs, Tamil circles in Jaffna commented, citing Sri Lanka Navy’s new internment camps around its installations in the island sector of Jaffna. Colombo’s aim is threefold: a human shield of civilians for its occupying forces, prevention of rightful owners reoccupying houses and lands around its military installations and eventually confiscating those lands in strategic areas for its expansion and other demographic conspiracies in the very heart of Tamil homeland, pointed out Tamil circles adding that a paranoid Sri Lankan state can never deliver justice to Tamils. The core truth is that the barbed-wire camps came up because the world powers wanted it. But some powers by not directly taking responsibility and some others like India by sitting on international action continue injustice, Jaffna circles said.
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SLA shoots 6 including women, children in Cheddiku'lam camp

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2009, 12:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Saturday around 6:00 p.m. opened fire and injured six civilians including two women and three children in Cheddiku'lam internment camp, according to initial reports reaching from Vavuniyaa. One 8-year-old child, seriously wounded in the episode, was transferred to Anuradhapura hospital from Vavuniyaa hospital, medical sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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Another batch of Vavuniyaa IDPs to be detained in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2009, 04:12 GMT]
Around 500 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa brought to Jaffna Thursday were handed over to Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) who took them to Kaarainakar, in the islets of Jaffna to be again detained in camps close to the SLN base. The IDPs are being held in Ma’raignanasampanthar Vithiyaalayam in Kaarainakar while the SLN is constructing new camps in the abandoned civilian settlements to detain them, sources in Jaffna said.
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Transferring IDPs, instead of releasing them, must stop: Anglican Bishop

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 September 2009, 15:22 GMT]
If [IDP] persons said to be released [from the internment camps in Vavuniyaa] are in fact being transferred to camps in different regions, this is misleading and must stop, says Anglican Bishop of Colombo Rev. de Chickera. The Bishop has urged Rajapaksa government to allow media access to areas in the North and provide public updates on the work regarding resettlement of displaced persons.
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Move to make money for 3-wheelers owned by state armed cadres, in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 13:48 GMT]
The office of Vavuniya Ramya House Army Civil Affairs has been shifted from the town to Ee’rataperiyaku’lam with immediate effect, causing inconvenience to the Tamil civilian travelers. The reason for the re-location of the office is mainly to enable the three-wheelers owned by Police, Army and Civil Defence force cadres to earn more money as hire from the Tamil passengers due to the long distance to the shifted office of Ramya House Army Civil Affairs in Ee’ratperiyaku’lam, according to well informed sources in Vavuniyaa.
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Civilians clash with SLA in Vavuniyaa internment camp

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 12:09 GMT]
Additional police and Sri Lanka Army troops were brought into the College of Education internment camp in Vavuniyaa after clashes erupted between civilian inmates and Sri Lankan forces following the arrest and assault of a Tamil youth in the camp. Several civilians and armed personnel sustained minor injuries, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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Political motive behind bringing Vavuniyaa IDPs to the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 04:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has political motives in detaining afresh the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa, in the islets of Jaffna in new camps under the control of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), so that these IDPs could be made to vote for it in the general election next year, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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“No IDPs but FDDPs, in Vavuniyaa camps” - Mangala Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 03:51 GMT]
“Today barbed wire internment camps are euphemistically called “Welfare Camps” and the 280,000 people incarcerated there are called IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) while in actual fact that these people should be called FDDPs (Forcibly Displaced and Detained Persons)”, Mangala Samaraweera, the leader of the dissident group of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), said.
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Woman swallows cynanide, dies in hospital

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 20:26 GMT]
A Tamil female who swallowed cyanide capsule when a team of police officials from the Galle District Crime Division attempted to arrest her died after being admitted to the hospital in Vavuniyaa on Tuesday early morning.
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SLN constructs new internment camps in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 05:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) stationed in Kaarainakar, Oorkaavatu’rai and Veala’nai are hastily engaged in constructing new internment camps to detain Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the islets of Jaffna held in Vavuniyaa and brought to the islets. Around 1500 IDPs brought from Vavuniyaa in two stages and handed over to SLN are undergoing untold difficulties being held by the SLN, sources in the islets said.
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