Grenade attack on 4 houses in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 November 2008, 16:27 GMT]
Unidentified armed men arriving on two motor bicycles lobbed hand grenades on four houses at different locations in Aasiku'lam area in Vavuniyaa police division Saturday night. Tension prevailed in Aasiku'lam when the bombs exploded with deafening noise, residents in the area said. The attackers fled away from the place when the villagers shouted for help.
Full story >>

LTTE leader decorates Tiger airmen, heroes of Vavuniyaa mission

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 November 2008, 02:30 GMT]
Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE), on Friday conferred Awards of Valour for Tiger commandos who excelled in their performance in the LTTE operation against the Sri Lankan Forces Vanni Headquarters (Vanni SF HQ) and the Tamileelam Air Force pilots and operators who took part in consecutive and successful flight operations of attack against the targets in the South and the bases of the Sri Lankan armed forces.
Full story >>

SLA blocks oxygen cylinders urgently needed by hospitals in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 15:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vavuniyaa has held back for weeks the vehicle bringing 52 oxygen cylinders from Colombo to Ki'linochchi public hospital urgently needed to save the lives of the Internally Displaced Persons, increasingly subjected to indiscriminate shelling, air attacks and road accidents. Although two of the three lorries with medical supplies that were waiting for weeks were allowed to reach the hospital on Monday, the lorry with oxygen cylinders was not allowed to cross the Oamanthai entry point by the SLA. There is acute need for oxygen cylinders at Ki'linochchi hospital, according to Dr. P. Brighton, the assisting Deputy Provincial Director of Health (DPDH).
Full story >>

Turbines damaged in TAF airstrike on power plant, one killed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 05:45 GMT]
A turbine operator of the Kelanitissa power plant was killed due to the impact of the explosion and two turbines and air coolers sustained damage when Tamileealm Air Force (TAF), the air wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) attacked the powerplant Tuesday night, according to the sources in Colombo. The air-strike was carried out on the target in Colombo, after attacking the Tha'l'laadi garrison of the Sri Lankan forces in Mannaar, inflicting heavy damage to the Tha'l'laadi base, which functions as the rear station for the Sri Lankan military operation on Vanni from the Mannaar front.
Full story >>

Accidental fire kills Police constable, associate commits suicide in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 October 2008, 18:32 GMT]
One police constable died at Eerapperiyaku'lam sentry in Vavuniyaa division when the gun of a fellow constable accidentally went off Monday early morning. Later the fellow constable committed suicide by shooting himself with the same weapon, Police Spokesman Ranjit Gunasekara told media in Colombo.
Full story >>

LTTE Jayanthan brigade commandos raid paramilitary camp, 2 killed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 October 2008, 23:36 GMT]
A commando unit of the elite Jayanthan Brigade of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in Batticaloa raided a paramilitary mini-camp in Vavu'natheevu Saturday night killing two and causing injuries to several others, the Tigers said in a note issued to media from Batticaloa on Sunday. The Tigers claimed they seized four assault rifles and ammunitions from the camp.
Full story >>

Indian federal model insufficient to Sri Lanka, says senior leader of CPI

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 October 2008, 08:31 GMT]
Unlike India, which has a multitude of ethnicities, the Sri Lankan question is confined only to two identities, Sinhalese and Tamils. Legacies of struggle and military situation have made a contextual difference in Sri Lanka. Therefore the Indian federal model is insufficient to Sri Lanka. It should be higher than that, perhaps a confederation having constitutional guarantees, preventing one unit militarily interfering with the other, said C. Mahendran, senior leader of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Communist Party of India, in a recent interview to TamilNet.
Full story >>

Vavuniyaa Tamil youths arrested in Badulla

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2008, 17:43 GMT]
The police arrested two Vavuniyaa Tamil youths on Tuesday for allegedly taking photograph of the Badulla police station with their hand phone cameras. They are now being detained in the Badulla police station and being interrogated by the Intelligence Unit of the Police, media sources said.
Full story >>

Shelling blocks access route, UN convoy returns to Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 2008, 13:59 GMT]
28 lorries in a humanitarian convoy that included the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) supplies, which left Oamanthai entry point to Vanni at 2:30 p.m. Thursday returned back to Vavuniyaa, unable to proceed into Vanni due to artillery shelling. Two shells exploded near the convoy, according to the officials who returned back with supplies to Vavuniyaa. Meanwhile, humanitarian oficials in Vanni said that the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) Vanni Command were fully aware of the itinerary of the convoy and blamed the SLA for sabotaging humanitarian supplies by firing shells on the access route. The same tactic was adopted earlier by the SLA in Vaakarai in Batticaloa district, they further charged.
Full story >>

Medical, health crisis looms in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 12:01 GMT]
120 refugees were admitted after snake-bite during the past 7 days alone in Ki'linochchi district's hospital functioning at Tharmapuram. One of the patients, a girl, has died and another, a 53-year-old woman, was being treated at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital, according to Dr. P. Brighton, the assistant Deputy Provincial Director of Health (DPDH) on Tuesday. He said three lorries with urgently needed medicines to treat snake-bite and diarrhea have not entered Vanni despite three repeated attempts to cross the entry/exit point at Oamanthai in Vavuniyaa. Meanwhile, ambulance-transport for patients in need of urgent medical treatment at Vavuniyaa hospital has become increasingly difficult.
Full story >>

Bus driver shot dead in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 16:33 GMT]
A 38-year old driver of the Vavuniyaa depot of the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) was shot dead by unidentified armed men Sunday evening near Pa'ndaarikkulam Amman Temple in Vavuniyaa. Armed men waylaid him and shot the driver when he was riding home in his motorbike after work, witnesses said.
Full story >>

Sri Lankan forces blast bridge on humanitarian access route in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 02:44 GMT]
Pearaa'ru bridge, located on Maangku'lam - Oddisuddaan Road, which branches off from the A9, the access route which was used by the World Food Programme (WFP) humanitarian convoy to Vanni during the first week of October has been destroyed by the Sri Lankan forces in joint attacks carried out since Sunday. In the meantime, rain has started to fall in densely populated areas in Vanni on Tuesday. Many of the refugees living under the trees were forced to seek shelter in buildings, temples, churches and with the neighbouring houses.
Full story >>

UNP organiser in Vavuniyaa shot dead

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 October 2008, 15:51 GMT]
Unknown armed men shot and killed United National Party (UNP) Vavuniyaa organiser, 53-year-old Mahesh Thavachelvam, at his residence in Vavuniyaa around 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, Police said.
Full story >>

Diaspora Tamils in Germany exhibit humanitarian aid

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 October 2008, 08:54 GMT]
More than 3,000 Eelam Diaspora Tamils in Germany, organised by 16 Tamil organisations, demonstrated on Friday through a central part of Berlin, exhibiting humanitarian supplies that they have collected to be sent to their kith and kin in Vanni, urging the International Community to facilitate transport from Colombo to Vanni.
Full story >>

Vanni IDPs struggle with inadequate humanitarian supplies

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 October 2008, 17:45 GMT]
Humanitarian supplies that reached Vanni in the first week of October were only adequate to cover rice for 7 days, dhal for 5 days, flour for 4 days and per registered IDP families, according to the Government Agent of Ki'linochchi, N. Vethanayakam, who collected reports from the workers engaged in coordinating the supplies at Ka'ndaava'lai Divisional Secretariat in Ki'linochchi district on Thursday. In the meantime, the supplies expected this week didn't reach Vanni on Friday amid reports of heavy shelling blocking the A9 road.
Full story >>

SLA shelling blocks A9 again

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 October 2008, 14:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has stepped up artillery shelling targeting the A9 road from Vavuniyaa to Maangku'lam where traffic is diverted east of the A9 road into Mullaiththeevu district. The entire strip of the A9 highway between Vavuniyaa and Maangku'lam has been blocked after a bus narrowly escaped from the shelling on Wednesday. The reports of SLA blocking the route comes a day before humanitarian supplies are expected to arrive in Vanni.
Full story >>

Two youths shot dead in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 October 2008, 15:01 GMT]
Bodies of two youths, with ages estimated to be between 25 and 35 were found shot dead Tuesday morning, one at Kalnaatinankulam junction in Vavuniyaa police division and other at Sithambarapuram junction, with gun shot injuries and their hands tied from behind, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
Full story >>

Tamil youth strangled to death in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 October 2008, 11:07 GMT]
Corpse of a Tamil youth was found Saturday morning along Fifth Lane at Vaiaravappuliyangku'lam in Vavuniyaa police division. The youth was murdered by strangulation after being tortured severely.
Full story >>

Armed men shoot Tamil woman dead in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2008, 10:46 GMT]
Unidentified armed persons shot dead a 44-year-old Tamil woman Aruljothy Sivanesawari Saturday night around 11:00, in her house at Paddaimadichchapu'liyangku'lam in Vavuniyaa police division, according to complaints lodged with the Vavuniyaa Police Sunday morning.
Full story >>

Ethnocentric military dictatorship in the making in Colombo - Vanni MP

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 September 2008, 09:47 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian for Vanni, Selvam Adaikkalanathan, who blamed Sri Lanka Army commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka for his Sinhala ethnocentric comments to a Canadian paper, said Sunday that the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as Commander-in-Chief and the Executive President, should instruct the SLA commander to apologise for the statement. Fonseka's statement not only undermined democracy by justifying an ethnic majoritarian rule in the island of Sri Lanka, but also alluded that a military dictatorship was in the making in Colombo, he said. Meanwhile, Rauff Hakim, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, also blamed that the "attack on the minorities " by the SLA commander "bordered on racism."
Full story >>