100,000 civilians go missing in war’s final months – Channel 4

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 April 2011, 16:32 GMT]
Over 100,000 Tamil civilians remain unaccounted for after Sri Lanka’s onslaught in 2009 into the northern Vanni region, Channel 4 reported Saturday. Government census forms obtained by Channel 4 show 430,000 residents in Vanni in mid 2008. However internal UN documents also obtained by Channel 4 show only 290,000 people coming out of the final enclave overrun by the government’s troops and being put into its militarized internment camps. Only 60% of the original residents have returned, a Channel 4 source who recently visited Vanni also said.
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Boyle reacts to UN report: "Creating Tamil Eelam, the only remedy"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 April 2011, 23:25 GMT]
Reacting to the contents of the UN expert panel's report on Sri Lanka's war-crimes, Professor Boyle, expert in International Law, and Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, told TamilNet, "there is absolutely no way the GOSL [Government of Sri L anka] is going to implement any of them [panel's recommendations], and the GOSL has already rejected all of them, according to published reports. Therefore, under these circumstances of longstanding and ongoing genocide against them [the Tamils], the only effective remedy the Tamil People now have is to create the State of Tamil Eelam and move to have the International Community recognize it."
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UN panel admits international failure in Vanni war, calls for investigations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 April 2011, 08:22 GMT]
"During the final stages of the war, the United Nations political organs and bodies failed to take actions that might have protected civilians," said the United Nations Panel on Sri Lanka in its final report to Secretary General Ban-ki Moon. The report has also admitted that the UN system knowingly failed to release the casualty figures of the civilians. Although the report didn't touch the hot topic of serious allegations against the role the UN officials and certain responsible personalities associated with world powers, it said: The Secretary-General should conduct a comprehensive review of actions by the United Nations system during the war in Sri Lanka and the aftermath, regarding the implementation of its humanitarian and protection mandates.
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Sinhalese demanding ransom captured by villages in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 April 2011, 16:34 GMT]
The three men, who came in a white colored van, searching for the trader, had earlier claimed that they were from Pillayan's TMVP and issued a letter to the trader for a fee of 30,000 rupees while he was visiting Trincomalee. After issuing the letter, they also informed their contacts in Vavuniyaa military check-post while the trader was travelling back to Jaffna.
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Sinhala colonization threatens coastal areas of Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 April 2011, 03:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse led United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government has been implementing a planned scheme to settle Sinhalese persons in the southern coastal areas of Mu'l'lik-ku'lam, Thampapa'l'li in Ko'ndaichchi and areas along Madu road in the Mannaar district. Lands belonging to Tamil villagers in these areas are being grabbed to settle Sinhalese from the south, said Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Vanni district parliamentarian in a statement to media.
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UN served a ploy to surrender killings

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 April 2011, 12:47 GMT]
Around 18 hours before the surrender of the LTTE Political Head B Nadesan and other civil officials of the LTTE that ended in their killing by the Sri Lanka Army, the UN officials served in the island met in Vavuniyaa and made plans to receive them on behalf of the UN. The UN officials were very well aware of who were coming to surrender, said a high-ranking UN worker who was involved in the arrangements to TamilNet on Monday. All the UN officers who served in the island at the time of the war are either no more in UN service or have left the island. The UN was used as a ploy in arranging and enacting the ‘surrender’ and then to kill the LTTE officials, Tamil political observers said. Vijay Nambiar, chief of staff to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was in Colombo at the time.
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Robert Blake’s ‘reconciliation’ is farming in Tamil land for SL military

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 April 2011, 12:02 GMT]
While the US Asst Secretary of State Robert O Blake testified before the US Foreign Affairs Committee on the “reduction of the reach of High Security Zones” (HSZ) in the island to support his vision of progress that is taking place towards the US State Department-conceived paradigm of ‘reconciliation,’ evidences that come from Jaffna show that the occupying genocidal SL military is engaged in full-fledged farming and horticulture in the largest HSZ in Jaffna Peninsula, reportedly by using slave labour of the captured LTTE cadres. The Valikaamam HSZ, created after uprooting villages, is in the best of the fertile lands and the occupying military has already leased out large tracts of them to Sinhala businessmen. If farming could take place why mines are an excuse to hand over the lands to the owners, ask Tamils.
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North-East ITAK local councilors take oaths in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 April 2011, 20:39 GMT]
Seventy six councilors, elected under Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) ticket on behalf of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for the fifteen local authorities in North and East, took oaths on Saturday at Trincomalee Town Hall in the presence of Mr.R.Sampanthan, parliamentary group leader of the TNA and President of the ITAK, sources in Trincomalee said. Sampanthan is also the Trincomalee district parliamentarian.
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Heavy competition in capturing Tamil media in the island

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 April 2011, 00:42 GMT]
Shares of a leading all-island Tamil daily, Thinakkural, published simultaneously in Colombo and Jaffna, were for ‘sale’ recently for hundreds of millions, and the competitors ranged from a former LTTE bigwig in the Rajapaksa camp and a Sinhala media house to circles close India. Ultimately, another leading Tamil daily in the island, The Virakesari, succeeded in purchasing 41 percent of the shares for 240 million rupees, informed media circles in Colombo said. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan state-owned media establishment Lake House has started publishing a Jaffna edition of its Tamil daily Thinakaran. Colombo soon plans to bring out this edition of Thinakaran using the facilities of Eezhanaatham, the only daily that was earlier coming from Vanni and the building of which is now occupied by the SL colonial military.
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Abductions of under-age youth escalate in North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 April 2011, 23:05 GMT]
Unidentified men from South last Sunday abducted a 13-year-old Tamil boy, K. Diluxon, from Uruththirapuram in Ki'linochchi. The boy managed to escape from his abductors while they parked their vehicle in Vavuniyaa. Meanwhile, a 17-year-old girl, Sangarapillai Maithrayi, from Vallaarai in Thenmaraadchi in Jaffna district was reported missing since Monday, according to complaints registered at Human Rights Commission in Jaffna.
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‘SL forces want Emergency extended for colonizing East’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 April 2011, 12:11 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance MP for Batticaloa, Pakiaselvam Ariyanethiran, Tuesday night told media that Sri Lankan forces were staging search operations in the three districts of Eastern Province to justify Colombo's “need” to extend the Emergency in the island. The Sri Lanka Army with the SL Police on Tuesday launched major cordon and search operation simultaneously in all the three districts of the Eastern province for the first time since the end of Vanni war. Meanwhile, Tamil residents of border villages in the East said the SLA had put up new road blocks and had issued warnings asking for details of those who were protesting against Sinhalese being settled along the border villages.
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SL Police conducts search operation in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 April 2011, 11:18 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police has launched a cordon and search operation and house to house checking in Mannaar district including the town since Thursday for the first time in two years since the end of war in Vanni in 2009.
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Vi'laan, Divula-pitiya, Jool-pallama

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 April 2011, 21:22 GMT]
The place of wood apple trees
The high ground of wood apple trees
The low ground of wood apple trees
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Thousands of SL troops round up resettled villages in Jaffna, Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 March 2011, 06:50 GMT]
Thousands of occupying troops of Sri Lanka Army rounded up the village Uduththu’rai in Vadamaraadchi East and are engaged in search operation since Thursday early morning. A similar operation is simultaneously being undertaken in Mullaiththeevu also. Vanni IDPs were recently resettled in both the places. The operation is said to be following an alleged incident in which some SL troops who went on a boat are missing in the sea and only their boat came ashore.
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TB affected on the increase among uprooted people of Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 March 2011, 06:10 GMT]
Several uprooted Tamil civilians from Vanni following Colombo's genocidal onslaught in Vanni and still kept in detention centres in Vavuniyaa have been diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis (TB), according to Dr.C.Jamunananda who is in charge of the TB control unit in Jaffna district.
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SLA-tortured teacher dies in Jaffna hospital

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 March 2011, 11:25 GMT]
28-year-old Sampanthan Sakthitharan a male teacher at Chaavakachcheari Hindu College, who was severely tortured by the occupying Sri Lanka Army in Jaffna at Thirunelveali on 15 March and dumped on the side of the road three hours later fought for his life at Jafna Teaching Hospital for 10 days with serious injuries in his head and finally succumbed to his injuries Saturday at Jaffna Teaching Hospital.
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Democratic uprising in Tamil Nadu crucial to changes in the region

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2011, 12:38 GMT]
If the so-called post 9/11 paradigm provided an opportunity for repressive forces to mobilise against various peoples in the world and if that worked against the liberation of Eezham Tamils, the recent uprising of peoples against establishments in North Africa and West Asia is a favourable trend the Eezham Tamils and the Tamils of Tamil Nadu have to carefully comprehend and make use of in bringing out changes in South Asia too. Progressive Sinhalese who see the need to recognise the nation of Eezham Tamils for a true reconciliation in the island should also join in. A democratic uprising in Tamil Nadu is crucial to changes in the entire region and that is a big hope for Eezham Tamils too. Tamil Nadu has the potentiality and the reasons for the uprising, writes TamilNet political commentator in Colombo.
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"Tamil propagandists" part cause of anti-trade US legislation, says SL Ambassador

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 March 2011, 00:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Ambassador to US, Jaliya Wickramasuriya, said that Leahy Amendment, a U.S. law barring support to foreign military units believed to have committed gross rights violations, and recently passed US Senate resolution, S. Res. 84, which calls for "independent international accountability mechanism to look into reports of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other human rights violations," in Sri Lanka are obstacles to US investment and US businesses engaging with local partners in Sri Lanka, Associated Press reported Thursday. Wickramasuriya played down the impact of the Senate resolution, which he saw driven by ethnic Tamil propagandists based overseas and rights groups, AP added.
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Batticaloa development not transparent, benefits no residents, says Council member

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 March 2011, 11:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has been planning development projects in the Batticaloa district to boost the image of Mahinda Chinthanaya and also to help its financial resources, but not to benefit the district residents, according to Mr.R. Thurairatnam, Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) member. Mr.Thurairatnam is also the leader of the Padmanaba wing of the EPRLF and representd Batticaloa district in the EPC.
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Dry rations to uprooted civilians in Jaffna stopped

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 March 2011, 23:51 GMT]
Sri Lankan government has stopped giving dry rations that has been issued to uprooted civilians in Jaffna peninsula until the end of 2010. Almost 30% of the people who were depending on these ration items, which were given to the Sri Lanka government under the World Food Programme to assist the affected people have been put into immense hardship by this action, civil organizations in Jaffna said.
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