SOS from Vaharai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 January 2007, 13:49 GMT]
Tamils Rehabilitation Organization, in an urgent press release has said that 15,000 Internally Displaced Persons, denied food by the Sri Lanka Army obstruction of the transport of food to Vaharai, are on the verge of death due to starvation.
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Second bus bomb kills 15 in South, 40 wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 January 2007, 09:35 GMT]
Another bus explosion was reported in South, claiming 15 lives, on Galle Road, at Seenigama in Meetiyagoda Police area in Galle District, 88 km southeast of Colombo Saturday around 2:20 p.m. More than forty civilians were wounded in the second explosion reported within 24 hours, according to Karapitiya hospital sources. Military officials in Colombo blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for the bomb attacks in buses Friday and Saturday. LTTE Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthiryan denied the accusation as baseless accusations.
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SL Police raids TRO Colombo office

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 January 2007, 08:26 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police, without producing any warrant, raided the Colombo office of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation Saturday morning and searched the office, NGO officials at the TRO office in Colombo told media. The raid on Colombo office by the CID, follows after the raids on Vavuniya and Trincomalee offices Friday. "The continuous harassment of TRO is having a tremendously negative impact on the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the affected people of the NorthEast," the TRO, the only organization working in some of the most severely affected parts of the NorthEast, said in a press statement Saturday.
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Three Tamils shot dead in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 January 2007, 07:41 GMT]
Three civilians were found shot dead in Trincomalee Friday night. Their bodies were found Saturday morning with gunshot injuries, one at Chelvanayakapuram, about 2 km north of eastern port town and the other two at Allesgarden, where two Sri Lanka Navy sailors were wounded in a claymore attack Saturday. Uppuveli Police, conducting investigations into the killings said the victims, between the ages 19 and 30, were Tamils.
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Jaffna students threaten protests

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 January 2007, 00:23 GMT]
The Tamil Students Federation, Jaffna district branch, in a press communique issued in Jaffna Friday, warned that continuing arrests and attacks on students by Sri Lankan Forces will lead to their taking action to disrupt civil administration in Jaffna peninsula, sources in Jaffna said.
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Youths seek safety through Jaffna SLHRC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 January 2007, 00:03 GMT]
Two brothers of a youth abducted from his Kokuvil residence by armed men alleged to be Sri Lanka Army troopers and Tamil paramilitary members Tuesday midnight, surrendered Friday at the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC) Jaffna office, fearing for their lives, sources close to SLHRC Jaffna said. The youths were placed in protective custody of Jaffna prison.


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One more ‘Halo Trust’ employee abducted in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 January 2007, 23:32 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen traveling in white van abducted one more employee from the humanitarian de-mining organization of ‘Halo Trust’, an international non-governmental organization functions in Jaffna peninsula, Thursday night.
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STF, Police storm TRO offices in Trinco, Vavuniya

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 January 2007, 09:07 GMT]
Sri Lankan Special Task Force personnel and the Police simultaneously stormed the regional offices of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation in Trincomalee and Vavuniya, and interrogated the NGO officials who were present at the offices seizing all the documents. Four TRO workers were taken by the STF and the police from the Vavuniya office located at Kurumankadu Friday around 11:30 a.m.
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2 killed, 2 wounded in DPU claymore explosion

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 January 2007, 04:24 GMT]
Two Agriculture Department officials were killed and 2 wounded Friday morning when a vehicle belonging to the department, transporting fruit plants, was hit by a Sri Lankan Deep Penetration Unit Claymore mine blast around 8:45 in Nedunkerni, 37 km northeast of Vavuniya. One of the two Claymore mines, triggered by the DPU attackers, exploded. Sri Lanka Army launched an artillery attack, firing around 25 shells towards the attack site, after the Claymore explosion.
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Remains of Padahuthurai victims laid to rest

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 January 2007, 01:02 GMT]
Hundreds of civilians, religious leaders and civil representatives bade farewell to 13 of the 16 civilian victims killed Tuesday in Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombardment at the Mother Velankanni Church at Nochchikuda, Wednesday, sources in Mannar said.
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First shipment of essential food items expected from Tamilnadu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 January 2007, 17:46 GMT]
A ship containing food provisions from Chennai is expected to reach Kankesanthurai port Thursday night, the first of its kind in the plan envisaged by Colombo to transport essential food items directly from Tamilnadu to Jaffna peninsula, sources from Colombo said. The goods, imported through a private person will be distributed to the residents of Jaffna district by the Government Agent (GA) Jaffna.
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MP urges UN to persuade Colombo on safe-haven

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 January 2007, 06:57 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian, S. Jeyanandamoorthy, has urged Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, to prevail upon the Sri Lankan Government to declare a safe-haven in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) besieged Vaharai region, for the protection of the civilians from artillery, multi-barrel rocket attacks, and aerial bombardment from the Sri Lankan forces. Government of Sri Lanka has earlier rejected the call to declare a humanitarian zone encompassing the Vaharai hospital and the surrounding areas for the protection of the civilians in Vaharai.
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Outstation undergrads demand safe travel to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 23:16 GMT]
The special meeting, presided by the Jaffna University Acting Vice Chancellor Prof. K. Kumaravadivelu and attended by faculty heads and lecturers held Wednesday at Jaffna campus to explore ways to provide safe travel arrangements to the outstation students back to Jaffna, when the Jaffna University reopens January 22, ended without inconclusively, according to University sources. The Jaffna campus was closed indefinitely when clashes erupted between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on August 11.
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Tamil mother, daughter arrested in Maskeliya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 20:10 GMT]
A Tamil mother and her daughter were arrested Wednesday morning by the Maskeliya Police in the central province on receipt of information that they had taken photographs of the Mousakelle reservoir located in the high security zone, sources said.


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Kokupadaiyan villagers flee fearing air-strike

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 20:06 GMT]
The entire population of Kokupadaiyan village in Musali divisional secretariat division in Mannar district Wednesday sought refuge in adjacent villages due to fear following the aerial strike on Padahuthurai in Ilupakadaivai by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) on Tuesday, sources in Mannar said. Kokupadaiyan village is located in the area controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Ilupakadaivai fishing village is also located in the LTTE area.
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9 Vaharai patients arrive in Batticaloa by boat

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 12:49 GMT]
Nine patients from besieged Vaharai in the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam controlled Batticaloa district were sent to Valaichchenai by boats for further treatment around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Dr. T. Varatharajah, the sole physician serving at Vaharai Government hospital, said.
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SLAF Kfir jets bomb Verugal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 12:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir jets bombed Verugal areas in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory in Trincomalee district Wednesday around 10:00 a.m. SLAF claimed that identified LTTE targets were bombed. Casualty information was not released.
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UN deeply concerned at civilian casualties in Sri Lankan bombardment

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 06:52 GMT]
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Margareta Wahlström, in a statement issued Tuesday, said the aerial bombardment on Iluppaikadavai in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam controlled Mannar district, by the Sri Lanka Air Force, killing civilians including children, was a "source of deepest concern." The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also remained concerned about deteriorating livelihoods on the Jaffna Peninsula in northern Sri Lanka as well as all those who have been displaced in the country, the statement said.
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Vaharai residents celebrate New Year

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 03:31 GMT]
The Federation of People's Organisations in Vaharai with the assistance of Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), organised on the New Year day, a volleyball tournament, to bring cheer to the people remaining in besieged Vaharai, civil sources said. Some participating teams were formed from people displaced in August .
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29 Batticaloa schools not re-opened, occupied by IDPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 17:39 GMT]
Twenty-four Tamil medium schools in the district of Batticaloa have not reopened for the current academic year 2007 Tuesday as they are occupied by hundreds of internally displaced families from Vaharai division as temporary shelters. These schools are located in the government-controlled areas in the education zones of Batticaloa, Kalkudah, provincial education ministry sources said.
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