Apply adequate pressure on Colombo for ceasefire and negotiations: LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 March 2009, 01:09 GMT]
The LTTE is not a movement believing that war is the only means to achieve the aspirations of the people it represents. But, political solution needs an environment conducive to it. The IC can play a positive role by adequately pressurizing Colombo for ceasefire and by promoting negotiations between GoSL and the LTTE as equal partners with due recognition, said Selvaraja Pathmanathan, the LTTE plenipotentiary for international relations, in an interview to TamilNet on Monday. On the issue of civilians, Mr. Pathmanathan said they have already asked the IC, what international instruments now hold GoSL accountable for the denial of basic rights of the people already moved and presently living in the internment camps.
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SLA arrests Mannaar hospital employee in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 March 2009, 13:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers arrested a hospital employee from Mannaar government hospital who had gone on duty to Vavuniyaa government hospital where he was arrested by the SLA soldiers and handed over to Vavuniyaa police 22 March, according to the complaint registered by his father with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office Monday.
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Tamil journalists applaud “Women of Courage” award to Srinithy Nandasekaran

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 March 2009, 11:46 GMT]
Magistrate Srinithy Nandasekaran, who had served earlier in the courts of Vavuniyaa, Jaffna, and Oorkaavattu'rai (Kayts), and currently a Magistrate in the Colombo Juvenile Court, was recognized as a South Asia Regional Finalist for the US Secretary of State's Women of Courage Award by the U.S. Ambassador Blake in Colombo on 24th March. Commenting on the award, a senior journalist said: "Ms Nandasekaran took strong, legally admissible steps to reign in on the Sri Lankan military's attempts to encroach into basic freedom of movement and rights of Jaffna residents. She ruled that the military cannot wear black masks during duty, and was a staunch critic of the road blocks the military forces set up that created hardship to the normal life of civilians."
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Arundhati Roy: "Colossal humanitarian tragedy"

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 March 2009, 00:52 GMT]
Pointing an accusing finger at the Indian Government for silence on the unfolding tragedy in Sri Lanka, Arundhati Roy, writer and activisit, in an article appearing in Times of India says, "while the killing continues, while tens of thousands of people are being barricaded into concentration camps, while more than 200,000 face starvation, and a genocide waits to happen, there is dead silence from this great country [India]. It’s a colossal humanitarian tragedy. The world must step in. Now. Before it’s too late."
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Grasping at straws leaving the tail: diaspora activist on Holmes' brief

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 16:21 GMT]
UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, who briefed the UN Security Council for a second time on Thursday "didn’t say anything new in his latest briefing other than reflecting on the escalation of the crisis and the pathetic impotency of the UN in handling the situation," Roy Gardiner Wignarajah, a spokesman of the Canadian Tamil activist group, International Human Cultural Union (IHCU), told TamilNet Friday. He also referred to a recent statement by Professor Francis Boyle, a leading expert in International Law, who said that it seemed as if the UN is now repeating one of the 'most shameless and disgraceful debacles in its entire history in today's Vanni Pocket by becoming complicit in Sri Lanka's genocide.'
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Tamil youth abducted in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 March 2009, 06:55 GMT]
Unidentified armed men arriving in a white van forcibly abducted Tuesday around 9:30 p.m a Tamil youth from his house in Unit 3 Menik Farm, Cheddiku’lam in Vavuniyaa district, according to the complaint made to Cheddiku’lam police by his wife.
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SL armed forces bar Tamils travelling to Colombo by Yarl Devi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 11:59 GMT]
Complaints have been lodged with human rights organizations that Sri Lanka armed forces are imposing severe restriction on Tamil people from traveling to Colombo and southern parts of the country from Mannaar and Vavuniyaa areas. The Yaldevi express train service is being conducted from Colombo upto Madawachchi due to security reason.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 05:48 GMT]
A Tamil family man from Paavatkodichcheanai who had been stopped on his way by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers at Unnichchai 6th Mile Post SLA camp check point in Vavu’natheevu police division in Batticaloa district is reported missing since Friday, sources in Batticaloa said. The missing man was returning home with 100,000 rupees from sales of his cattle and people had seen him being detained at the SLA check post Friday.
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Injured mother, child reported missing after admission to Mannaar hospital

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 19:18 GMT]
A mother and her two-month-old child sustaining injuries in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling in Vanni and taken to Trincomalee by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and admitted to Mannaar government hospital 16 February had reported missing Wednesday night, according to complaints made by her relatives to Vanni Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians.
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Japan to offer financial assistance for demining in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 15:39 GMT]
A delegation of key officials of the Japanese Embassy in Sri Lanka which visited Jaffna recently had intimated Japan’s inclination to provide financial assistance to continue the demining activities in Jaffna peninsula which has been curtailed in recent times, sources close to the Coordinating Committee for demining projects in Jaffna District Secretariat said. Areas in Changaththaanai, Madduvil and Oorkaavattu’rai have been earmarked to benefit from Japan's help in the first stage, Danish Demining Organization (DDO) sources said.
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Allow ICRC to transport medicines, RDHS urge Sri Lankan Health Ministry

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2009, 10:40 GMT]
Regional Directors of Health Services for Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts, Dr. T. Varatharajah and Dr. T. Saththiyamoorthy, Monday jointly urged the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health to supply medicines intended for the civilians in Vanni at least in the next ICRC shipment. Only 5% of the combined quota of medicine and dressings meant for the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of this year was earlier transported by the ICRC. "We were shocked and felt very sad when we were informed by the ICRC that no medicines have been handed over by the ministry officials to be taken in the ship," the doctors said. "Many deaths could have been prevented if basic infrastructure facilities and essential medicines were made available."
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Gotabaya comments on "media freedom"

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 March 2009, 13:30 GMT]
"Mentioning the editor's [Vidyadaran's] name provoked a surprising response," says Amos Roberts, reporter for Australia's Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) program Dateline, in his 25 minute report from Sri Lanka, referring to the spontaneous display of anger by Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse who had ordered Vidyadaran's arrest and accused Vidyadaran of "terrorism" saying, "he is involved in recent air attacks and I am telling you if you try to give coverup for that person you have blood in your hands [...] I am telling you he is a terrorist. He is responsible for co-ordinating air-attacks in Colombo." Gotabaya Rajapakse is a citizen of the United States.
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Colombo-Vavuniyaa train service stops with Madawachchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 2009, 14:13 GMT]
Vavuniyaa bound Yaazh Theavi (Yarl Devi) train service from Colombo has been curtailed up to Madawachchi due to 'security reasons' with effect from Thursday until further notice, media reports said. Railway Department, however, has not given the reason for the suspension of service, according to media reports.
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50,000 families affected by floods in 'safe zone'

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 2009, 13:07 GMT]
Health officials in Vanni said Wednesday that civilians inside the 'safe zone', urgently need at least 50,000 temporary shelters and temporary toilets as they live under worn out tarpaulin tents. There is a severe shortage of food and medicines. Scarcity of drinking water and sanitation facilities add to the woes of the people, health officials said. The makeshift hospital in Puthumaaththa'lan was struggling to accommodate patients under its roof. Many patients were earlier staying outside the building. The ICRC ship, which uses to transport the seriously wounded did not come due to the bad weather conditions, the officials further said.
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Menon wants civilians issue and war ending in Colombo’s favour

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 March 2009, 10:32 GMT]
The Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, has said in Washington that “civilians caught in the war should be safely moved to government-controlled areas”, PTI reported Thursday. Wrapping up his four days US visit and briefing that both India and the US have similar approaches to address the issue in Sri Lanka, he envisaged rehabilitation, reconstruction and building up normal economic life of people “once these areas are cleared or under the government control.” He also said on the need “to bring in the kind of the political steps including devolution”, according to the PTI report. Whatever Menon said in Washington doesn’t significantly differ from the verbal stance adopted by Mahinda Rajapaksa government, aiming for victory and subjugation of Tamils, said political observers in Colombo.
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Jaffna food produces to be sent to South

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 March 2009, 18:10 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) informed Wednesday that 9 lorries will take a consignment of local food produces including dried fish, onions, beetroot and prawns to South Sri Lanka Thursday through A9 land route. Fisheries society sources expressed concern that this arrangement will raise the price of fish that is in heavy demand in the peninsula, affecting the consumers. The GA, however, said that this measure is being taken to increase marketing opportunities for the local products.
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Relief supplies reach Jaffna through A9 road

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 March 2009, 21:47 GMT]
Despite announcement made by Commissioner of Essential Services that relief supplies to Jaffna would be sent from Vavuniyaa in 40 lorries only 22 of them arrived in Jaffna Tuesday around 7:30 p.m at Naavatku’li Government Stores, sources in Jaffna said. Jaffna Government Agent (GA) and other key government officers in Jaffna, on directives by the government, had waited at Naavatku’li to receive the convoy of lorries that were bringing goods along A9 land route for the first time after a long period, but had to cancel their program and get back to Jaffna as the lorries were late in arriving at their destination, sources in Jaffna said.
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Flood affected refugees in internment camps refuse temporary re-location

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 March 2009, 06:48 GMT]
Tamil refugees from Vanni, detained at schools in Vavuniyaa, were affected by heavy downpour of rain Monday, but refused temporary relocation, officials in Vavuniyaa said. The refugees turned down the offer in fear of getting separated from each other, the sources added.
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SLA cut downs use of A9 route to Jaffna due to security risks

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 March 2009, 15:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) which had earlier announced the opening of A9 land route to Jaffna has now limited its turns of transporting soldiers to 3 days in a week due to clashes breaking along the road and security risks, SLA sources in Jaffna said. Information on the days of transport is not disclosed and the convoy of busses takes the soldiers on vacation from Palaali to Vavuniyaa and back on unannounced days, three times a week.
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SLA arrests 12 youths in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 March 2009, 11:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers arrested 12 youths Sunday morning in a search operation conducted in Cheddiku’lam and Poovarasangku’lam in Vavuniyaa district. The fate of seven of the arrested youths is not known as only five of them are detained in Vavuniyaa police station, the relatives of the youths said.
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