Indian assistance to children in SLA detention camps in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2009, 14:08 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) distributed learning materials donated by the Indian Embassy in Colombo to the children held in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps in Mirusuvil and Kodikaamam. The Indian Embassy officials who had discussed the arrangement with Jaffna GA earlier had sent the learning materials through Sri Lanka Army, Jaffna secretariat sources said.
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SLA shelling kills 133 civilians including 49 children on Tuesday

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 March 2009, 17:27 GMT]
More than 49 of 133 civilians killed inside 'safe zone' in SLA shelling on Tuesday were children and 16 of them were children below 3 years of age. The SLA deployed internationally banned cluster munitions and fire-bombs against civilians who were stranded without shelter inside the 'safe zone' which has become a killing field, reports TamilNet correspondent from Vanni. 273 civilians, including a GS (village officer) and an ICRC worker, were wounded on Tuesday. 47 of the civilians succumbed to their injuries on the way to hospital or after their admittance.
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RDHS confirms 13 hunger deaths, urges officials to act

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 13:59 GMT]
Dr. T. Varatharajah, the regional director of health services in Mullaiththeevu in a letter faxed to the Government Agent of the district has stated that his hospital has received 13 dead bodies of civilians who have died due to starvation. Five victims were identified and one of them was a 17-year-old girl. Dr. Varatharajah provides details of the known victims of the starvation and urges measures to address the predicament. The doctor also says people have begun using unusual substitutes like leaves never used in cooking and named six patients being treated at Maaththa'lan hospital after eating such leaves.
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TNA MP's secretary abducted in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 12:20 GMT]
A group of 10 armed men, including a female, who arrived in a white van abducted Sellathurai Sabanathan, a 50-year-old secretary of Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Kanagaratnam Sathasivam. The abduction has taken place Saturday around 3:30 p.m. at the residence of the victim at Vairavappu'liyangku'lam.
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Danish media consultant refused entry into Kaarainakar by SLN

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 February 2009, 16:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) did not permit Dr. Henrik Grunnet, the media consultant of the Media Research and Training Centre (MRTC) affiliated to Jaffna University to attend an introductory event of a media course that was to be inaugurated Wednesday at Kaarainakar R. Thiyagarajah Maththiya Viththiyaalayam in his official capacity and as a guest of honour, sources close to MRTC said. Vice-chancellor emeritus of Jaffna University and the Director of MRTC, Prof. Pon. Balasuntharampillai, the chief guest of the event, had accompanied Dr. Henrik Grunnet to Ponnaalai SLN at the entrance to Kaarainakar where Grunnet was sent back by the SLN.
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'Koayil' controversy

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 February 2009, 23:28 GMT]
The officiating Tamil priesthood of tradition has to be helped to transcend contemporary sociopolitical norms of caste identity or hierarchy. It needs to see the real roots of its culture vested with the Tamil people and should stand on the side of the masses, upholding the cause of the oppressed. In fact, it has to take a step ahead of the government in progressiveness, writes opinion columnist Ampalam on the recent events concerning Chithamparam temple, triggered off by the controversy of reciting Tamil hymns in the Golden Hall of the temple.
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LTTE: Black Air Tiger attack on Colombo's Air Force HQ, Air Base

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 2009, 22:55 GMT]
The LTTE Friday claimed two aircraft of Black Air Tiger mission diving into Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Headquarters in Colombo and into the SLAF base at Katunayaka, carrying out successful air raids. The Tigers also released photograph of the two Black Air Tigers, Col. Roopan and Lt. Col. Siriththiran with LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan before embarking on their mission.
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Students in detention camps to attend schools under SLA control

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 2009, 16:49 GMT]
Students of the civilians brought from Liberation Tigers held territories and held in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camp in Mirusuvil are to attend a temporary school in Kodikaamam, taken to the school and back to their camp each school day by SLA soldiers, Thenmaraadchi education office sources said. Students held in similar detention camps in Koappaay Government Teachers’ Training College and in Kurunakar are to attend school under SLA surveillance, the sources added.
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Civilian refugees imprisoned in internment camps in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 February 2009, 11:55 GMT]
The civilian refugees who either fled the war zone or caught by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) are denied not only the freedom of movement to go out of the buildings in which they are detained under 'near-prison' conditions, but are also denied freedom of movement inside the camp itself after 6:00 p.m. by the SLA, even for the call of nature, on grounds of condemnation that they were linked to the LTTE, said NGO activists on condition of anonymity.
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Nagesh, made generations to laugh, passes away

[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 January 2009, 20:07 GMT]
Born as Gunddu Rao in a Kannada Madhva Brahmin family on 27th September 1933, C.K. Nagesh, the veteran comedian of Tamil cinema, passed away in Balaji Hospital Chennai on Saturday at the age of 76. Started acting in films since 1961 (Thaayilla Pi’l’lai), his career stretched to almost half a century, the last film being Thasaavathaaram in 2008.
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Student reported missing released by SLA in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 15:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Oorezhu camp in Jaffna handed over Sunday a 16-year-old student of Aanaikkoaddai Mahaviththiyalayam gone missing on 18 December 2008 to his parents on condition that they should not disclose any information about their son being held by SLA for a month, sources in Jaffna said.
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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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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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SLA engaged in vacating civilians from Vadamaraadchi East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 21:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers advancing from Ezhuthumadduvaa’l in Thenmaraadchi into areas earlier held by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Vadamaraadchi are forcibly vacating permanent residents from their villages, sources in Chaavakachcheari said. 208 persons belonging to nearly 50 families brought to Kodikaamam by the SLA soldiers were handed over to Kodikaamam police who produced them before Chaavakachcheari magistrate Tuesday. Directed by the magistrate the vacated civilians have been placed in Jaffna Government Agent’s (GA) special hostel in Koappaay.
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Civilian casualties increases 8 fold in Ki'linochchi district

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 2009, 00:54 GMT]
Ki'linochchi hospital, which was functioning in the town earlier has been moved closer to civilian centers, and is now functioning from Tharmapuram and two schools in Visuvamadu - at Visuvamadu Maha viththiyaalayam and Punnaineeraavi school - and in Kallaa'ru in Chu'ndikku'lam. The hospitals are functioning in difficult conditions and are overwhelmed with civilian casualties from the air strikes and artillery attacks. Only during the first week of January 2009 the hospitals belonging to Ki'linochchi district had to attend a number of casualties equaling that of 8 weeks during the months of November and December in 2008.
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Student reported missing with Jaffna HRC

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 January 2009, 18:04 GMT]
The mother of a 16-year-old student of Aanaikkoaddai Baalasupramaniya Mahaaviththiyaalayam registered a complaint Friday with Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC) office that her son has been missing since 18 December.
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Artillery shelling continues in Vanni, civilian wounded, hospital full of wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2009, 17:35 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling continued to target densely populated civilian area in Pu'liaympokka'nai in Vanni on Saturday. A 61-year-old civilian was wounded at Karaveddiththidal in Pu'liyampokka'nai around 5:30 p.m. when at least 6 shells hit the settlement. Meanwhile hospital in Tharmapuram was full of injured civilians. Transport of seriously wounded patients for further treatment at Vavuniyaa hospital was blocked for the third day due to artillery shelling by the SLA, according to medical authorities.
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Trincomalee IDPs in shelters suffer due to rain

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2008, 16:55 GMT]
Hundreds of internally displaced Tamil families now being sheltered in several welfare centres in Paddiththidal and Ki'liveddi in Moothoor division of Trincomalee district, have been suffering due to leaking roof and flood water entering their huts following heavy rain with gale since Tuesday.
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SLA permits opening of temples inside Point Pedro HSZ

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 December 2008, 17:28 GMT]
Doors of two Saiva temples located inside Point Pedro High Security Zone (HSZ) were opened for prayers and rituals again after being closed for more than two years, civil society sources in Jaffna said. Koddadi Siththivinaayagar Temple and Koadduvaasal Chandiga Parameswary Temple were closed for poojas and prayers from August 2006 when hostilities broke out between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers.
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'Thanks for food, but help to win our rights,' Vanni IDPs urge Tamil Nadu

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 December 2008, 02:12 GMT]
Internally Displaced persons in Vanni who were receiving the humanitarian supplies sent by the people of Tamil Nadu, while expressing their gratitude for the timely help, urged the leaders of Tamil Nadu to help them to win their freedom by voicing for the political aspirations of Eezham Tamils. TamilNet correspondent recorded expressions from the IDPs who were gathered at Karaichchi Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society, one of 23 supply centres in Vanni, on Thursday.
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