Train service to Vavuniyaa suspended until further notice

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2009, 23:20 GMT]
Passenger train service between Colombo and Vavuniyaa has been suspended from Thursday until further notice as a security measure. The service will be run upto Madawachchi, Railway Department said.
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SLA separates relatives of seriously wounded, sends them to internment camp

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2009, 19:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vavuniyaa, inhumanely separated 122 immediate family members accompanying the seriously wounded 226 civilians transported by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), and sent them to an internment camp in Nelukku'lam, Vavuniyaa, medical sources in Vavuniyaa told TamilNet. Mothers of number of injured children, between ages 8 and 10 years, were also not allowed to remain with their children, and were transferred to the internment camp.
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‘Allow food, medicine, international mercy mission to Vanni’ – civil society groups

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2009, 12:17 GMT]
A groups of Sri Lankan civil society organizations Thursday expressed alarm over the fast deepening humanitarian crisis in the Vanni and in a joint statement called on the Sri Lankan government to allow the “urgent delivery of food and medicine to the Mullaitivu area, …. the passage of medical convoys … and the [Sri Lankan] security forces respect areas which are demarcated as safe zones.” They also called for an “international mission of mercy immediate access to the Vanni to enable an accurate assessment of the humanitarian and protection needs of the people”. The They also protested reports of violence and abuse in the detention camps where people who fled the warzones are being held by the Sri Lankan military.
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4 Indian military experts wounded in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2009, 07:01 GMT]
Four Indian military experts, assisting the Sri Lankan military, were wounded this week in Vanni and are undergoing treatment in Colombo, reliable sources told TamilNet Friday. The story, first broke by the Australia based Global Tamil Vision (GTV) on Thursday, had said the wounded were Indian soldiers who were undergoing treatment at a military hospital in Colombo. Although TamilNet was able to confirm through reliable sources on Friday that there are at least 4 Indian military experts undergoing treatment, specific details were not obtainable due to the prevailing threat on the right to know information in the island.
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LTTE not opposed to individual right of a civilian to flee combat zone - Nadesan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2009, 11:32 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) Political Head B. Nadesan said Thursday that the Tigers have been urging the UN, ICRC and other international actors through all available offices to facilitate transportation for the wounded civilians in need of medical treatment to the Vavuniyaa Hospital. Blaming that there were elements seeking to feed false reports to tarnish the image of the Tigers, Mr. Nadesan revealed that, a UN 'security officer' who accompanied the WFP humanitarian convoy, had attemptd to pressure the Tigers on "completely wrong moral grounds," to organise an "exodus of the family members of the local staff of the UN," leaving behind the remaining civilians in the 'safety zone' to be subjected to "genocidal attack" by the Sri Lankan military.
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LTTE denies reports of preventing patients leaving combat zone

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 19:08 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE)'s Political Office on Wednesday categorically denied a news originated in Colombo government's media, the Daily News, and was highlighted in the International media that LTTE prevented UN convoy transporting injured patients from Mullaiththeevu district to Vavuniyaa hospital. Director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat S. Puleedevan described the news as mischievous.
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Colombo's war crimes turn to rape of the fleeing - Jaffna MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 11:45 GMT]
Civilians who have been caught by the Sri Lanka Army recently in Vadamaraadchi East in Jaffna and from Murasumoaddai in Ki'linochchi district, who are confined to the 'detention camps' run by the Sri Lankan military, have complained to their relatives that the Sri Lankan soldiers have taken several women into their custody and were sexually abusing them, said Jaffna district parliamentarian S. Gajendran on Wednesday. Those who continue to justify and abet the on going war against Tamils and those who directly or indirectly advocate surrender of Tamil civilians to their adversaries are a party to war crimes, he further said.
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Hospitals, ambulances hit by shelling, hundreds killed - ICRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 January 2009, 10:20 GMT]
"Hundreds of people have been killed and scores of wounded are overwhelming understaffed and ill-equipped medical facilities in Sri Lanka's northern Vanni region," said the ICRC. hospitals and ambulances have been hit by shelling and several aid workers have been injured while evacuating the wounded. "The violence is preventing the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from operating in the region," said Jacques de Maio, ICRC head of operations for South Asia in Geneva.
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100 civilians feared killed, countless wounded, artillery barrage on 'saftey zone'

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 09:06 GMT]
More than one hundred civilians were killed and hundreds of wounded patients were helpless without medical attendance as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was continuously engaged in one of the most inhumane artillery barrage on civilian populated 'safety zone' in Udaiyaarkaddu Monday morning. All the civilians were remaining under the bunkers for more than 5 hours, according to initial reports from the medical sources in Udaiyaarkaddu. The makeshift hospital at Udaiyaarkaddu was on total disarray as 10 patients were killed and four ambulances damaged. The doctors have called for the ICRC, which is also helpless under the bunkers, the reports said.
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Massacre escapees at Vavuniyaa hospital under strict surveillance

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 04:18 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) opened fire and massacred 7 civilians, including two children of a group of refugees who ended in the hands of the SLA in Murasumoaddai village in Ki'linochchi district on January 10, three days before the mass exodus of civilians towards Puthukkudiyiruppu. On the same day, the SLA blamed the Tigers for the killing of the 7 civilians. However, civilians who have been isolated into various detention camps run by the military, have revealed that the SLA soldiers had opened fire on them.
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Fleeing civilian youths misused to fabricate SLA propaganda

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 13:07 GMT]
Six Tamil youths who recently moved from the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) controlled area to Vavuniyaa were arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, taken to a nearby army camp where they were given LTTE military uniforms and were forced to give video and voice cuts saying that they were LTTE cadres, who were fed up with the Tiger hierarchy and decided to hand over themselves to the SLA, legal sources in Vavuniya said. Vavuniyaa Magistrate has instructed the Police to approach the families of the youth through Government officials and to initiate family re-union.
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Urgent medical transport facilitated after 14 days

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 January 2009, 13:36 GMT]
Nearly after 2 weeks, on Thursday ICRC escorted 44 civilians in 5 ambulances and buses to Vavuniyaa for medical treatments, initial reports from Vanni said. More than 50 civilians have been waiting for medical transport for the past two weeks and a child with head injuries died at Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital as the needed medical transport to Vavuniyaa hospital was not available.
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IC urged to act on humanitarian grounds to safeguard civilians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 January 2009, 12:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has cornered civilians in overcrowded areas in the suburbs of Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) town, according to sources in Vanni. While artillery shells exploding in densely populated makeshift settlements have caused several civilian casualties, civilians are fleeing from indiscriminate bombardment from air and ground are forced to seek shelters throughout the day, civil sources from Vanni said. IDPs' representatives express fear that those who fall into the hands of SLA units are likely to be forcibly transported under close military supervision to detention centre style camps at locations isolated from mainstream communities, as evidenced in Mannaar and in areas north of the recently SLA-occupied Elephant Pass.
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Tamil prisoners stripped naked, beaten by Sinhala Guards

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 01:04 GMT]
Seven Tamil and Muslim suspects detained in Anuradhapura prison filed complaints at the Mannaar Court Monday that five Sinhala thugs brought from outside and about ten other prison guards stripped the seven men naked and beat them with batons inside Anuradhapura prison Saturday and Sunday, legal sources in Mannar said.
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Youth shot, burnt to death in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 January 2009, 22:26 GMT]
The burnt body of a 26-year youth was found lying on the bund of the Parasangawa Tank in Vaarikuttiyoor in Vavuniyaa police division Sunday morning. Initial inquiry revealed that the said youth had been shot dead on Saturday night and later burnt by some unidentified armed persons.
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"Which norms of liberal democracy preclude IC attending to exodus, genocide?" asks IDP activist

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2009, 03:52 GMT]
The LTTE doesn't obstruct or instruct the civilians of Vanni of what direction they have to take in fleeing the current phase of war. But, a large section of the civilians have considered that their security, even now, lies in the LTTE held areas in the eye of war, and are spontaneously moving towards that direction. "Allowing the war to continue, leaving Tamil civilians in the hands of the preying Sinhala army, which we dread, demonstrates only the cruelty of the few minds that determine the course of the war from outside of the island and how international norms evolved through civilisation have become a joke," said P. Kanakalingam, the president of Vanni People's Welfare Organisation (VPWO), on Thursday.
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Family man seeks protection, another reported missing, with Jaffna HRC

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2009, 15:53 GMT]
A father of four children and a carpenter by profession from Aanaikkoaddai in Valikaamam sought protection to his life with Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office as unidentified gunmen had tried to abduct him on 13 January from his residence during Sri Lanka Army (SLA) imposed curfew hours, according to the complaint lodged with HRC Thursday. Meanwhile, the wife of a three-wheeler driver registered a complaint with HRC Jaffna that her husband had gone missing since 30th October 2008 after leaving to Jaffna from Vavuniyaa.
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Youth shot dead in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2009, 13:36 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Wednesday night a youth in Kaa’liku’lam in Vavuniyaa police division. On receipt of information from Poovarasanku’lam Village Officer (Grama Sevaka) Vavuniyaa police recovered the body of the youth Thursday morning and handed it over to Vavuniyaa general hospital. The victim is estimated to be around 25 years of age, the police said.
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SLA forcibly uproots civilians from occupied Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 January 2009, 03:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has been engaged in vacating civilians from the coastal villages earlier held by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Vadamaraadchi East, to Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi and brought around 300 civilians in vehicles along the A9 road Wednesday making a total of 985 civilians along with those brought in during the last four days, according to Divisional Secretariat sources in Chaavakachcheari. Meanwhile, there have also been alleged reports of disappearances in the custody of the SLA. The latest move, to keep the civilians within military High Security Zone in Mirusuvil, has set off fears of military 'detention centres' like the ones reported in Mannaar and Vavuniyaa in recent times.
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Doctors call for attack free zones surrounding displaced hospitals

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 23:45 GMT]
In a systematic well planned militarily and politically crucial campaign, the Sri Lankan Government directed military forces are pursuing attacks on densely populated areas east of the A9 in Vanni. Often in close proximity to relocated hospitals and camps of the fleeing population, its strategy seems to be one of aerial bombardment followed by immediate ground attacks, involving heavy artillery and mortar attacks that have caused increased civilian casualties. Above statistics and ground reports, echo a plea from government service doctors in Vanni, who have called for 'attack free zones' surrounding displaced hospitals.
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