Kohona: ‘Victorious soldiers could have raped every single woman’

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 July 2009, 02:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan government officials are running a prostitution racket using Tamil women interned in at least one of the militarised camps for displaced people, The Australian newspaper reported Thursday. "It's been brought to the attention of senior government officials but no one seems to be doing anything about it," an aid worker, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, told the paper. In response to the accusations, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Palitha Kohona told the paper: "These (the military) are the guys who were winning the war - they could have raped every single woman on the way if they wanted to. Not one single woman was raped."
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3 Tamil civilians arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 July 2009, 09:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID) in Colombo took into custody Wednesday three Tamil civilians staying in a lodge located in Kotahena, sources in Colombo said. The arrested civilians are suspected to be escaped detainees from one of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa, the sources added.
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IDPs living on Jaffna railway track area evicted

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 16:49 GMT]
Families of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living on Sri Lanka government railway properties since they were evicted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) twenty years ago from their residences in Valikaamam North, were forced to leave Tuesday to leave their temporary shelters in railway crossings, stations and officers’ quarters as the dead line to quit being 30 June, sources in Jaffna said. The government officials and SLA officers who were very keen to evict the families had not provided any alternate place for them to move in, the families complained.
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SL military shoots dead 2 detainees in Vavuniyaa internment camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 13:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka military personnel opened fire Sunday morning on detainees in an attempt to stop them making way through the barbed wire fence separating Ramanathan camp and Anandakumarasamy camp located in Cheddikulam, killing two of them and injuring more than two, in a confrontation that developed Sunday morning, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The killers had taken the two bodies away and their identities are not available at the moment, the sources added.
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Galle / Kaali

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 03:03 GMT]
The rocks
The rocky place
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120 IDP girls handed over to children home in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 June 2009, 15:58 GMT]
One hundred and twenty nine Internally Displaced girls have been handed over to Arulaham Children Home run by Vavuniyaa Sivan Koayil management on the orders of Vavuniyaa District Court from one of several camps described by humanitarian agencies as “internment camps” located in Vavuniyaa. These children will be under the direct supervision of the Department of Probation and Child Care, according to the court order.
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Vavuniyaa Tamil Christian teacher reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 June 2009, 17:20 GMT]
A Christian teacher, Rasalingam Naguleswaran, father of two children, has been reported missing since 6 June afternoon after he boarded a bus bound for Vavuniyaa from Gunasinghapura bus halt in Colombo, according to complaints made by his wife Geethanjali with the Vavuniyaa police, Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC).
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Horrors on women in Sri Lanka's internment camps - Egeland

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 10:59 GMT]
Jan Egeland, the former UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tuesday told the press that "Sri Lanka is one of the latest examples of the World community letting a government get away with denying access for the international community of witnesses, of humanitarian relief and protection for civilians," adding that world governments failed what they swore in 2005 of the "responsibility to protect," and that "for Tamil women" there were a "number of horrors." Egeland's comment contrasts with the stand of his successor John Holmes who earlier commended the Sri Lanka's treatment of the 300,000 civilians currently being held in internment camps in Vavuniyaa.
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TNA submits nomination list for local elections in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 08:01 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian, Mavai Senathirajah submitted Thursday the list of TNA nomination list of 29 candidates contesting Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election with Mudiyappu Remedius, a leading lawyer and a human rights activist as its principal candidate, under ‘House’ symbol of Ilangkaith Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi. The list includes one Muslim and four women candidates. Besides Mavai Senathirajah, TNA MPs Suresh Premachandran, Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam and Solomon Cyril were also present at the event in Jaffna. Meanwhile, the TNA parliamentarians N. Sivasakthy Ananathan and S. Vino Noharathalingam fielded S.N.G Nathan as principal candidate for the list for Vavuniyaa Urban Council Wednesday.
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9,247 Vanni elderly IDPs handed over to Social Welfare Ministry

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 02:15 GMT]
The Ministry of Social Welfare Monday took over the maintenance and care of nine thousand two hundred and forty seven elderly internally displaced persons of over sixty years of age from Vanni from the internment camps in Vavuniyaa. The lists of names of these elderly IDPs are now exhibited in the offices of the Ministry of Social Offices located in Mannaar and Vavuniyaa, media reports said.
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IDPs living on Jaffna railway track area ordered to leave

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 June 2009, 17:26 GMT]
The president of the Federation of Jaffna Non-government Organizations (NGOs), C. V. K. Sivagnanam, requested Jaffna Government Agent (GA) not to evict immediately the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), numbering around a hundred families, living in camps on the railway track area in Jaffna since the time they were thrown out of their residences in Valikaamam North which were declared High Security Zones (HSZ) by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in 1990, sources in Jaffna said.
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Devananda to contest elections under Rajapaksa's ‘Betel Leaf’ symbol

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 June 2009, 10:56 GMT]
Sri Lankan Minister and General Secretary of Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP), Douglas Devananda, announced Tuesday in Jaffna that his party will contest the local government elections of Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) and Vavuniyaa Town Council (TC) under ‘Betel Leaf’ symbol, the common symbol of the ruling United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA), sources in Jaffna said. Mr. Devananda has been under pressure from the ruling SLFP to join the party in recent times, giving up the "Eelam" identity, according to informed sources, which also revealed that Devananda was forced to give up his plan of contesting under his party symbol Vee'nai.
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TNA MP Kanagaretnam ordered further detention in Colombo court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 June 2009, 09:37 GMT]
The Colombo Chief Magistrate and Additional District Judge Mr. Nishantha Kappurarachchi Monday instructed the Criminal Investigation Department of the Sri Lanka Police to further detain the suspect Mr.Sathasivam Kanagaretnam, Vanni district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, conduct investigations and submit a comprehensive report to court on the next date, July 26.
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Police collect details of Eastern province IDPs staying in Vavuniyaa camps

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 June 2009, 15:15 GMT]
Special police teams have been collecting names and other details of internally displaced persons who are permanent residents of three districts of the eastern province- Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai and currently being kept in internment camps located in Vavuniyaa. Hundreds of IDPs of eastern province have been held captives by the Sri Lankan forces in Vanni at the end of the war.
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Outbreak of chicken pox, hepatitis reported in internment camps

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 June 2009, 15:12 GMT]
Outbreak of chickenpox and hepatitis reported from internment camps located in Vavuniyaa where hundred of thousands of internally displaced people from Vanni have been sheltered. More than twelve thousand inmates are reported to have been still suffering from chickenpox. 40 to 50 fresh cases of chickenpox are reported daily.
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25 elderly refugees sheltered in Vavuniyaa Home die in one month

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 June 2009, 10:47 GMT]
Twenty five elderly Tamil refugees affected by the war and the conditions prevailing in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa died in one month after being shifted to an elders’ home run by Vavuniyaa Koayilku'lam Sivan Koayil administration. Two more IDPs have been warded in the Vavuniyaa general hospital due to deterioration of their health, according to the sources at the District Secretariat.
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Opposition MPs denied access to Vanni internment camps

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 June 2009, 11:36 GMT]
“Sri Lanka government has not yet permitted the opposition parliamentarians to see the Tamil civilians held in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps in Vavuniyaa in order to learn of their problems and help them,” Gayantha Karunathilaka, United National Party (UNP) media spokesman, said in a press meet held Wednesday at the office of the leader of the opposition in Colombo.
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CPA’s FR petition regarding IDPs fixed for further inquiry

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 June 2009, 11:25 GMT]
The Fundamental Rights petition filed by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka challenging the curtailment of internally displaced persons (IDPs) interned in the camps located in Vavuniyaa was listed for further inquiry on July 10 following the application made by the State Counsel that he needed more time to obtain instruction from the Attorney General. The FR petition came up for inquiry Thursday before a three member Bench of the Supreme Court, legal sources said.
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Sinhalicisation insinuated in Musali

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 June 2009, 09:45 GMT]
Top Sri Lankan military officials appointed by SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa as Competent Authority in charge of resettlement of Tamils displaced from Vanni have finalised a plan to settle 200 Sinhalese people in Musali where 2,000 displaced Tamils have been allowed to resettle, informed civil officials in Vavuniyaa told TamilNet Friday. More than 4,500 civilians were forced to flee Musali division in Mannnaar district in September 2007.
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Two UN staff reported missing in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 June 2009, 09:32 GMT]
A Tamil staff of United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and another Tamil staff of the UNHCR, both attached to the UN offices in Vavuniyaa have been reported missing for the past 3 days, civil sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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