HC applications to be filed by familes of disappeared LTTE key persons

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 August 2010, 07:28 GMT]
The family members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eezham (LTTE) key persons gone missing after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) or surrender at the end of the war on Vanni are to file Habeas Corpus (HC) applications next week, sources Jaffna said. According to Sri Lanka minister D. Gunasekara the wives of LTTE senior key persons Balakumaran and Yogi are now widows. Some sources say that both had been killed after surrendering to SLA and some that they are held in special SLA detention centres. The contradicting and confusing information have led their family members to file HC applications, the sources added.
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Hordes of monkeys plague resettled families in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 August 2010, 05:19 GMT]
Monkeys in Vanni having multiplied in numbers after the war on Vanni invade into the temporary sheds of uprooted families hastily resettled by Sri Lanka government without clearing the area of the overgrown shrubs and jungle, sources in Vanni said. The resettled uprooted families in Vanni left to fend on their own without the needed assistance and subjected to occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) harassment are further assailed with the problem and danger of monkeys, the sources added.
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Odduchuddaan

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 August 2010, 21:01 GMT]
The quarry mound
The mound or high ground that remains after quarrying
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2 Chinese key military officers on secret visit to Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 August 2010, 20:33 GMT]
Two key officers of China military paid a sudden and secret visit to Vanni where they met the occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) top officers in the important bases in Vanni, sources in Vanni said. Even the key SLA officers based in Vanni had not been informed of the sudden visit of the Chinese military officials who arrived in a convoy of vehicles heavily guarded by Sri Lanka President's Special Security Force, the sources added.
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SLA exploits Chinese funds meant for resettlement of uprooted Vanni civilians

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 August 2010, 07:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Vanni is exploiting funds donated by China for the resettlement of uprooted Vanni people to construct permanent housing schemes for its personnel, in Kokkaavil, located west of A9 road in Vanni, civil society organizations in K'linochchi said. Uprooted civilians forcibly taken by SLA soldiers to work in the constructions said that even two storey buildings are under construction in an area where new roads have been laid. Meanwhile, around 3,000 uprooted families, brought to be resettled in Vanni by Sri Lanka government, continue to live under trees left abandoned while Sri Lanka government exploits international assistance meant for them to settle Sinhalese families from South, Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian said.
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Landmines explode in 3 Vanni school surroundings

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 August 2010, 04:09 GMT]
Three landmines went off Sunday morning in the surroundings of schools in three separate schools in Ki’linochchi district in Vanni where uprooted families were resettled in Vanni on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) assurance that the areas had been completely de-mined. The landmines exploded when students set fire to waste heaped after cleaning the surrounding area of their schools, sources in Ki’linochchi said.
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Resettled families in Vanni left abandoned in deserted places

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 August 2010, 13:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vanni has refused permission to the uprooted families of Kumaarasaamipuram and Mayilvaakanapuram in Ki’linochchi district to resettle in their lands claiming that the area is infested with landmines, sources in Ki’linochchi said. These people were brought from Vavuniyaa SLA Menik Farm camp by Sri Lanka government authorities promising resettlement in their own villages. But now they are left abandoned in deserted places without sufficient food, water, hygienic facilities and safety, the affected civilians said.
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SLA reinstalls checkpoint at Elephant Pass

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 August 2010, 04:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has reinstalled its checkpoint in Yaanaiyi’ravu (Elephant Pass) at the gateway to Jaffna peninsula where all vehicles passing through A9 land route are instructed to register their entry and exit, sources in Jaffna said. A similar SLA checkpoint at Oamanthai is already in existence. Persons entering Vanni who are not in possession of Sri Lanka National Identity Card of Passport are sent back to obtain Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence (MoD) permission to enter Vanni through Oamanthai SLA checkpoint, the sources added.
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Fate of teenage students disappeared during war on Vanni remains unknown

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 July 2010, 05:20 GMT]
At least a thousand of the persons disappeared during Sri Lanka government’s war on Vanni are students below the age of eighteen and their families, mostly mothers, have begun a desperate search for their children gone missing after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) at the end of the war, Education Department sources in Ki’linochchi said. Sri Lanka government has failed to disclose the particulars of the teenage students who had either surrendered or been arrested while humanitarian organizations responsible for tracing persons disappeared have no information on them, the sources added.
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SLA appropriates uprooted civilians’ villages in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 July 2010, 04:43 GMT]
Occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vanni has declared the villages of Mayilvaakanapuram and Kumarasaamipuram in Ki’linochchi district not allowed for resettlement as they had been reserved for SLA use, sources in Ki’linochchi said. 140 uprooted families of the two villages brought to be resettled two months back after detention in Vavuniyaa SLA camp by Sri Lankan civil authorities have not been allowed to resettle in their properties.
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Malwatte Chapter Chief Incumbent visits newly erected Buddhist temples in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 July 2010, 17:34 GMT]
The Chief Incumbent of Malwatte Chapter, Most Venerable Thippaduwaave Sri Sumangala thera, accompanied by Buddhist priests visited Vanni Wednesday where he worshiped in the Buddhist temples newly erected by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources in Vanni said. Thursday, the Chief Incumbent participated in an event in Nelliyadi Maththiya Makaa Viththiyaalayam in Vadamaraadchi and distributed learning materials to the children of war affected areas of Vadamaraadchi and Thenmaraadchi. This visit is counted as the first by a Chief Incumbent of Malwatte Chapter to Jaffna after many years, sources in Jaffna said.
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Indian Bank to open branch in Jaffna to channel Delhi’s rehabilitation aid

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 July 2010, 01:14 GMT]
The Chennai-based, state-run Indian Bank is planning to open a branch in Jaffna, and to facilitate an Indian government loan to Sri Lanka of US$ 200 million for the rehabilitation of internally displaced Tamils, media reports said. "Talks [with Sri Lanka] are in an advanced stage at the moment," chairman and managing director Mr. TM Bhasin told The Times of India earlier this week. Indian Bank has at present over 1,700 branches, the majority in Tamil Nadu (757) and Andhra Pradesh (230).
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Sinhala magistrate to be appointed to Mullaiththeevu, in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 17:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Justice Ministry has decided to appoint Jayawardne, a Sinhala magistrate to Mullaiththeevu magistrate court in Vanni which had begun to function after a period of nearly 20 years, sources in Mullaiththeevu said.
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Resettled couple in Vanni attempt suicide, husband dies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 16:39 GMT]
A young couple, recently resettled in Ki’linochchi district in Vanni, attempted to kill themselves Sunday. The neighbours rushed them to Ki’linochchi government hospital where the husband died and the wife, transferred to Jaffna Teaching Hospital, is admitted in the Intensive Care Unit. The couple had lost all four of their children during the war in Puthumaaththa’lan, killed in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling on civilians, sources in Ki’linochchi said. Frustration over their children’s death and the loss of all their belongings had driven the couple to attempt suicide, the neighbours said.
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NPC cuts funds to Vanni local bodies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 05:44 GMT]
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) is alleged of cutting funds allocated to the local government bodies in Vanni in great measures while these institutions are not in a position to collect revenue from people who had been uprooted and just resettled in Vanni, sources in Vanni said. It is further accused that NPC officials spend the above funds on needless projects to satisfy the whims of Northern Province Governor Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri and Sri Lanka government.The Governor is expected to hold a meeting Monday with the officials of the local government bodies in the North.
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British Tamils seek boycott of defiant Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 July 2010, 12:21 GMT]
British Prime Minister David Cameron will Monday be handed a memorandum on behalf of UK’s Tamil community urging his government to support an international probe into war crimes in Sri Lanka, and to pressure the Colombo government to resettle in their homes tens of thousands of Tamils still languishing in refugee camps, and allow international access to thousands held in its prisoner-of-war camps. The UK is also being urged to boycott Sri Lanka till Colombo complies with international law. The handover follows a march and ‘midnight vigil’ outside 10 Downing Street staged Friday night by thousands of supporters of the campaign who marked the anniversary of the 1983 ‘Black July’ anti-Tamil pogrom.
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PTF imposes restrictions on local NGOs in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 July 2010, 06:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka government which allows only a few Non-government Organizations (NGO) to serve in Vanni, now imposes restrictions on NGOs serving in Jaffna too through its Presidential Task Force (PTF), headed by Basil Rajapaksa, Sri Lankan Minister and brother of SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa, NGO circles in Jaffna said. It is alleged that PTF favours the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the allocation of housing constructions for more than 15,000 uprooted civilians from Vanni staying in temporary dwellings in Jaffna.
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SLA personnel to be settled in uprooted civilians’ land in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 July 2010, 06:28 GMT]
Five thousand houses constructed in Mu’ruka’ndi area in Ki’linochchi district including Skanthapuram along A9 road are to be settled in August with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) senior and junior officials and their families permanently while the uprooted civilians brought to be resettled in Skanthapuram are left in a school building by Sri Lanka government officials, sources in Ki’linochchi said.
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Jaffna HRC to investigate cases of persons disappeared at the end of war on Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 July 2010, 17:46 GMT]
An official of Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) office said that the first stage of preliminary investigation to find out the fate of persons who had disappeared after leaving Liberation Tigers controlled area in Vanni at the end of the war, is in the offing. Representatives of Associations related to finding persons disappeared after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) or surrender, however, said that they believe that the above announcement will also end up with no results just as their earlier complaints to HRC, ICRC and UNHCR on disappeared persons remain stored in files without any action taken on them so far.
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