Police collect information of Vanni IDPs living out of refugee camps in Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 March 2010, 18:37 GMT]
Tamil Nadu police and its intelligence unit personnel are actively engaged in collecting details of the persons internally displaced from Vanni during the later stages of war who had gone to Tamil Nadu in South India from the detention centres in Vavuniyaa, sources in Tamil Nadu said. Information is being gathered particularly of those who are living with their relatives and friends in Tamil Nadu. Involvement of Sri Lanka intelligence in this investigation is suspected as many Vanni IDPs from Vavuniyaa detention centres were abducted by SL intelligence department and forced into turning informers, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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Government continues to deceive IDPs in resettlement in HSZs in Valikaamam – President of IDP Welfare organizations

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 March 2010, 11:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka government continues to deceive the people evicted from their properties in Valikaamam north and east in Jaffna, which were declared High Security Zones (HSZs) by Sri Lanka Army (SLA), without allowing to them to resettle in their homes as promised time and again by government ministers and officials, A. S. Nadarajah, the president of the Federation of Welfare Organizations in Jaffna peninsula told TamilNet Friday. Even the promises made by President Rajapakse and his brother Basil Rajapakse prior to the recent presidential election have not been fulfilled, he added.
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Police arrest Udappu residents in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 March 2010, 09:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police Thursday claimed that they had taken into custody twenty-five persons at Naavaladi in Batticaloa in an attempt to flee by boat to seek asylum in a foreign country, probably Australia. Twenty Tamils and five Sinhalese were in the group.
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China, India, compete helping Colombo’s demographic onslaught of Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 March 2010, 01:30 GMT]
While Colombo plans allotting lands for ‘retired’ Sinhala army personnel in the so-called 'resettlement' schemes of Tamil North and East of the island of Sri Lanka, China and India compete in proving who is the best facilitator of Colombo in its demographic onslaught, Eezham Tamils circles said. China has emerged as Sri Lanka’s biggest single lender in 2009, revealed Colombo sources adding that China’s top aid to the North was spent particularly on creating conducive environment for Colombo’s occupying armed forces there. India is already helping Colombo’s communication strategies disrupting Tamil demographic contiguity. In the meantime, relieving Colombo from Western pressure, Indian envoy in Colombo said Sri Lanka could export more garments to India under Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
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Government engaged in setting up Sinhalese colonies in Vanni – Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 March 2010, 15:34 GMT]
“Sri Lanka government is actively engaged in colonizing the Vanni districts of Mannaar, Mullaiththeevu and Ki’linochchi with the families of armed force personnel and Sinhalese people,” Suresh Premachandran, former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian and one of the TNA candidates contesting Jaffna electoral district, said in a press briefing held Wednesday at his Jaffna office.
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TULF releases election manifesto in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 March 2010, 15:39 GMT]
Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader, V. N. Anandasangari, released the election manifesto of TULF Tuesday at the party office in Stanley Veethi in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. He said that the Tamil parliamentarians elected in the last general election in Jaffna district had done nothing for the good of the Tamils and that they should withdraw from contesting so as to pave the way for TULF. Hundreds of TULF supporters were present on the occasion.
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17 persons reported missing since January

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 February 2010, 02:18 GMT]
Seventeen persons had been reported missing till 23rd February, spanning first seven weeks this year, according to complaints made by the relatives to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL). HRCSL spokesperson in Colombo said that HRCSL regional offices had received seventeen complaints of disappearance of persons, majority of them from north and east provinces, media sources said.
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SLPP persons harass senior Tamil journalist Parameswaran in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 February 2010, 08:33 GMT]
Persons of Sri Lanka People’s Party (SLPP), a constituent of ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), caught and held N. Parameswaran, a senior Tamil journalist in Jaffna peninsula, the correspondent of BBC Tamil service and Daily Mirror, Saturday from 9:00 a.m til 9:30 in front of the SLFP office located at Veampadi Veethi in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. This office is actively engaged in getting SLFP membership forms signed by the resettled Vanni displaced persons in Jaffna on the pretext that the forms are to be used to get information about their children gone missing during the war and to give them relief food, and Parameswaran was caught and held for nearly half an hour as he tried to expose the motive of the forms to the Vanni IDPs waiting in queue to get them, the sources further said. Police, on being informed of the incident freed Parameswaran.
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1867 candidates contesting in North-East

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 February 2010, 15:02 GMT]
A total of 1867 candidates are set to contest the up coming April eight Parliamentary Elections in Sri Lanka’s north and east where 31members will be elected to the SL Parliament. The candidates will contest in the districts of Jaffna, Vanni, Batticoloa, Trincomalee and Digamadulla. The total includes those from eight recognized political parties while the rest are independent and from smaller parties that will have no actual bearing on the outcome of the results. The number of candidates in Ampaa'rai district is second highest with 660 candidates, next to Colombo district with 836 candidates from 22 political parties and independent groups.
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Rift in SLFP circles in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 February 2010, 19:06 GMT]
Mahintha Thilakumara Udugama, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) organizer of Jaffna and Vanni, paid Thursday deposit money to contest as an independent candidate in Jaffna district as he was not included in the SLFP nomination list, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) accused the government for paying money to many independent groups to contest Jaffna district with the view to split the votes in Jaffna peninsula, the sources added.
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TNA submits candidates’ list to contest Vanni district

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 February 2010, 18:25 GMT]
Tamil National Aliance (TNA) submitted Wednesday its list of candidates to contest Vanni district in the forthcoming parliamentary election at Vavuniyaa Secretariat, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Meanwhile, United National Party (UNP) is expected to submit Thursday its list of candidates contesting Jaffna district with Ms. Vijayakala Maheswaran, wife of late Thiyagarajah Maheswaran, former Colombo district parliamentarian, as its chief candidate.
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British Shadow FM calls for political reform, independent war-crime investigations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 February 2010, 17:21 GMT]
Noting that "there is a natural affinity between Tamils in Britain and our [Conservative] Party," William Hague, the British Shadow Foreign Secretary, in his speech to the inaugural launch of Global Tamil Forum, warned that the "continued confinement [of thousands] will simply sow the seeds of discontent, [and] could lead to renewed conflict in years to come," called for "meaningful political reform," and said that "there should be a full independent inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by both sides during the final stages of the military conflict."
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GTF launch well attended by British politicians

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 February 2010, 03:13 GMT]
British Foreign Secretary David Milliband, Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague and Liberal Democrats Shadow Foreign Secretary Ed Davey all addressed the Global Tamil Forum’s inaugural meeting in London on Wednesday, 24 February. The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) launch saw delegates from 14 countries gather in the UK House of Commons to be addressed by speakers from across the political spectrum, including parliamentarians, councilors and prospective parliamentary candidates. Some delegates were also invited in for a private meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
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27 passengers injured in bus accident in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 February 2010, 02:37 GMT]
A public transport bus carrying mostly government employees and teachers fell into the roadside canal Monday early morning while trying to avoid colliding with a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) vehicle in Kunchchup Paranthan in Vanni, sources in Jaffna said. Eleven of the injured are admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital where three of them are in a critical condition, hospital sources said. Rest of the injured are admitted to Ki’linochchi government hospital.
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Ex-TNA parliamentarian Thangesvary to contest in UPFA ticket

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 February 2010, 18:02 GMT]
Kathiraman Thangesvary, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian in the dissolved parliament is to contest in the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) with five new faces in the Batticaloa electoral district, media circles in Colombo said Monday.
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SLFP branch in Jaffna enlisting members using deceptive tactics

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 February 2010, 03:04 GMT]
The Jaffna branch of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) is actively engaged in getting membership forms signed by the resettled Vanni displaced persons in Jaffna on the pretext that the forms are to be used to get information about their children gone missing during the war and to give them relief food and other assistance, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, SLFP organiser for the districts of Jaffna and Vanni, Thilakumara Udugama said that so far 26,000 persons have enrolled themselves as members in SLFP.
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Anniversary of Murugathasan’s death marked in Geneva

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 February 2010, 04:03 GMT]
Tamils from across Europe gathered in Geneva Saturday to commemorate the life Murugathasan Varnakulasingham, who immolated himself in February last year to draw attention to the plight of hundreds of thousands of Tamils being starved and killed in the Vanni, Sri Lanka. The commemoration coincidentally followed soon after former UN official, Gordon Weiss, admitted that the Sri Lankan government was responsible for the deaths of up to 40,000 Tamil civilians in the last days of the war alone. This is a figure far larger than the 7,000 the UN had previously claimed as being the number killed in the Vanni, but even that figure was disputed by the Sri Lankan government.
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TNA considers opening offices in Delhi, Colombo

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 February 2010, 02:39 GMT]
On being asked whether Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has plans to open its party offices in Delhi and Colombo, Suresh Premachadran, TNA spokesman and MP, said that efforts are being taken to open the two offices but they will be opened only after the parliamentary election. In response to a question whether the Indian Government has granted permission to open an office of TNA in Delhi, he did not give a clear answer. However, he added that there is no need to obtain permission to open an office in Colombo.
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TNA shouldn't fail representing hearts of Tamils: Fr. Emmanuel

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 February 2010, 13:26 GMT]
At a time when Colombo and its collaborators try their best to erase out the national aspirations of Tamils, the Tamil National Alliance has the noble responsibility to maintain its unity in being the true voice and champions of Tamil aspirations, says Rev. Prof. Dr. S.J. Emmanuel, the former Vicar General of the Catholic diocese of Jaffna in an open letter addressed to TNA leaders Sampanthan, Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran, Selvam Adaikalanathan and Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam. Eezham Tamils have been consistent in expressing their genuine desire for independence ever since 1976 and even now it remains the underlying goal despite constitutional sanction on speaking it out openly in the island of Sri Lanka. But, their kith and kin in the free diaspora have voiced on their behalf, overwhelmingly re-confirming that desire as the standing-aspiration, he said in the appeal.
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NGOs in Jaffna request government to increase dry food ration to resettled IDPs

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 February 2010, 03:15 GMT]
The Federation of Non-Government Organizations (FNGO) in Jaffna has again appealed to the government to increase the amount of dry food rations given monthly to the resettled Vanni IDPs in Jaffna. The amount of monthly dry food ration given to a family now is hardly sufficient for them for a week, the federation said. This is due to the fact the amount of dry food rations issued monthly is based on allocations decided on in 1990 when there was internal displacement due to war and in the following 20 years the prices of food items had escalated, it pointed out.
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