U’rukaamam, Urugamuwa, Urumutta

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 December 2010, 01:02 GMT]
The big village
The big hill or peak
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Hathurusinghe, Imelda, deny existence of ‘High Security Zone’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 December 2010, 10:48 GMT]
Addressing media in Jaffna Friday, the Jaffna Government Agent (GA) Mrs Imelda Sugumar said that according to the briefing she had from Sri Lanka’s military commander in Jaffna Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe, the nomenclature High Security Zone (HSZ) is inappropriate in the present context. According to the General, in the past as there was war between the LTTE and the SL government, people were evacuated from that area in order to save the public from getting trapped in the war, and as the SL government was providing security to that area it was called High Security Zone. Now it is only a zone ‘restricted to the public,’ the GA said. Meanwhile, the GA also said in the same press meet that it would take another 10 years to clear mines in the HSZ and resettle people there. But a map obtained from mine clearing agencies show a different picture.
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Iluppaik-kadavai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 December 2010, 01:32 GMT]
The Iluppai tree locality to pass through
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SLA intelligence ‘leaks’ stories about robberies in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 December 2010, 22:08 GMT]
In an attempt to pass the blame and entrap the released LTTE cadres now living in Jaffna, the Sri Lanka Army intelligence has started ‘leaking’ stories linking the former LTTE cadres with the escalating robberies in the peninsula, media sources in Jaffna said. Among the two arrested by the police related to the firing incident at Changkaanai last week, one was an LTTE cadre escaped surrender, says the SLA. But the Maanippaay police investigating the incident denied any such information. It is said that one of the arrested had a T56 rifle and was responsible for the firing. How was he able to freely move with that gun and fire a volley of shots in an area completely controlled by the SLA, is the question raised by the public. The escalating robberies mostly take place in the areas of Kaithadi, Uduppiddi, Kodikaamam, Chunnaakam and Changkaanai, where the SLA presence is heavy.
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SLA tightens security in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 December 2010, 15:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is employing new measures in the last several days to increase security in Jaffna, civil sources in Jaffna said. SLA has increased search operations during nights and has increased checking of motor vehicles including motor bikes. Passengers traveling in night buses are being subjected to delays as they searched in the proximity of four or five SLA camps. In addition, reports from Jaffna say SLA soldiers are constructing new earth bunds in the previously declared High Security Zones (HSZ) raising fears among families awaiting resettlement that return to their ancestral homes are going to be further delayed.
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Gunmen open fire at Hindu chief priest, sons in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 December 2010, 18:17 GMT]
The Chief Priest of Murukamoorththi Temple in Changkaanai of Valikaamam and his two sons were fatally injured Saturday evening when unknown gunmen, who attempted to rob the temple, opened fire on them. 56-year-old Niththiyantha Sharma, the chief priest and 32-year-old Sivananda Sharma and 27-year-old Jegananda Sharma, were rushed to Jaffna Teaching Hospital and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, medical sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, civilian movement has been heavily restricted in Changkaanai by the Sri Lankan military that has rounded up the area, residents said. Journalists are denied access to the area. Recently, a temple musician playing Naathasvaram at a temple in A'laveddi in Valikaamam was also fired at by gunmen.
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Properties, temples of uprooted Tamils robbed in Valikaamam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 December 2010, 00:09 GMT]
How the number of Tamils in Valikaamam in Jaffna district has dwindled during the last 20-years due to Sri Lankan genocidal onslaught on Tamil homeland became evident when only 970 families registered for resettlement in the three villages of I'lavaalai and Viththakapuram in Valikaamam North, bordering the Sri Lanka Army declared High Security Zone, civil sources in Jaffna said. 1746 families were registered in the same area in 1990, according to the statistics by Thellippazhai divisional secretariat. The uprooted civilians, who were allowed to visit their villages last weekend and later denied of proper access-route to their villages, also complained that even the few properties that remained in their houses and temples have been robbed away after they were allowed access to the villages.
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SLA suspends resettlement in Valikaamam North HSZ villages

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 10:12 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army Sunday suspended the resettlement of displaced people of three village (GN) divisions including I'lavaalai and Viththakapuram after the civil authorities ceremonialy launched resettlement of 970 families in Valikaamam North sector of Jaffna district on Saturday with a pooja at Nakuleasvaram temple, attended by EPDP leader and minister Douglas Devananda and Tamil National Alliance MPs. The military officials have said there were crucial security establishments with minefields on the way to the villages. As a result, the much awaited resettlement has again been postponed, this time for 'another month'. Meanwhile, informed sources said that the whole episode of resettlement was hurriedly staged at Keerimalai temple to coincide with the visit by Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna to Jaffna last week.
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SLA warns temples in Jaffna not to toll bells on Heroes Day

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 November 2010, 18:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna has instructed the temple authorities in Valikaamam not to toll the temple bells Saturday. The army thinks that it will be a way of people paying their homage to the Heroes who laid down their lives in the struggle for liberation, sources in Jaffna said. The temple authorities were instructed to drape the bells with cloth if the bells cannot be removed from their positions. Last year, on Heroes’ Day, people who were oppressed from observing the Day remembering their fallen kith and kin tolled bells in the temples in the evening defying the restrictions of the SLA.
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Indian High Commissioner visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 15:18 GMT]
The Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Mr. Asok K. Kantha is on a sudden visit to Jaffna where he is engaged in preparations to receive Indian Minister of External Affairs Mr. S. M. Krishna who is expected to visit Jaffna peninsula on 27 Saturday, sources in Jaffna said. The Indian minister will be taking part in the event of resettling families in the outskirt villages of the Sri Lanka Army (SLZ) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North that is to be presided by Sri Lanka Minister, Basil Rajapaksa, the sources added. Mr. S. M. Krishna will be opening an office of the Indian High Commission to Sri Lanka in Jaffna during his visit.
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SLA active in grabbing strategic lands in North

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 14:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Ki’linochchi have threatened 18 Tamil families in Irathinapuram where they were each given 5 acres of land to live in 1994 by Sri Lanka government for which they have the documents proving ownership. SLA now claims that a Sinhala school had been located in the said area and therefore the land belongs to the government. SLA further says that it wants the land to be used as cattle grazing ground, the families said. Similarly, SLA officials in the Achchuveali camp have claimed areas in Puththoor and Vaatharavaththai in Valikaamam East saying that a Sinhala school called Panjaseeva and a Buddhist temple had been functioning in the said area. A military establishment and Sinhala colony at strategic Vaatharavaththai will check free movement of Tamils among the sectors of Valikaamam, Vadamaraadchi and Thenmaraadchi regions of the Jaffna peninsula.
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I'lavaalai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 November 2010, 23:07 GMT]
The small hamlet
The new hamlet
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SLA accused of imposing restrictions on resettlement in Valikaamam

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 November 2010, 16:07 GMT]
The Welfare Associations for the uprooted families from Valikaamam accused Jaffna Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities for imposing undue restrictions on the people in Thellippazhai Divisional Secretariat area. Jaffna Government Agent (GA) Ms. Imelda Sukumar, instructed by the SLA authorities has asked the families of the above area to again register their particulars on 19 November though they had submitted the necessary particulars earlier, the associations said. Besides, the Non-government Organizations that are to assist the families to be resettled are also asked to submit applications through the GA. The families are not going to be resettled in the SLA occupied High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam but in the No-man-zone on the edge of the HSZ, the associations pointed out.
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Military fortresses and colonisation in Jaffna choke Tamils, threaten India

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 November 2010, 10:26 GMT]
The selection of locations for building new military fortresses and for colonising Sinhalese in the Jaffna peninsula is sinisterly schemed by colonial Sri Lanka to permanently squeeze the Tamil heartland. Casual visitors don’t perceive it. Tamils of collaborative politics helplessly defend it. Indian policy planners of habitual bungling compare it with what they do in Kashmir, tribal belt and northeast India and agree with it. They think that if the nation of Eezham Tamils is permanently erased and if they get one or two harbours there that is enough for the security of India. The military cum colonisation complexes come up with the full blessings of India and with Chinese material help. But eventually they are going to be trained on India, said an academic in Jaffna, citing the complexes that squeeze the peninsula at strategic locations.
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Jaffna fishermen complain against SLA restrictions before LLRC

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 November 2010, 12:25 GMT]
Representatives of Maathakal Fishermen Society complained Friday to the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) against the closure of the fishing jetties in Valikaamam North High Security Zone (HSZ) of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the continuing restrictions to fish using the only jetty in the area, in A’laveddi Mahajana Hall Friday. Witnessing before LLRC, the representative from Maathakal pointed to the LLRC that Sri Lanka government that had urgently executed the verdict of the Supreme Court to demerge the North and East had failed to execute the Supreme Court verdict to allow resettlement in Valikaamam North HSZ though the two verdicts were given on the same day.
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Tamil editor blames Colombo of deceiving uprooted civilians in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 November 2010, 18:14 GMT]
A leading journalist and the news editor of Thinakkural Tamil daily published in Jaffna, M. Vamadevan accused the Sri Lankan governments in power during the last 20 years of deceiving the uprooted people from Valikaamam North Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zones (HSZs) saying that resettlement is not possible as they are infested with land mines, witnessing before the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) Thursday in Jaffna. Promises had been given to the uprooted families that they will be soon permitted to resettle in their own places at various instances by various Sri Lanka ministers and government officials but nothing has been done to resettle them, Vamadevan told LLRC.
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SLA, police protection to Jaffna GA Imelda Sukumar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 November 2010, 11:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka Defence Ministry has ordered protection to Ms. Imelda Sukumar, Jaffna Government Agent (GA) in response to complaint made by her to the ministry of continuous threat to her life through phone calls, sources in Jaffna said. Her residence in the Old Park in front of Jaffna Government Secretariat is being guarded by SLA from Wednesday morning while her office is provided with police protection, the sources added.
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Muslim families to be resettled in Jaffna soon – Jaffna GA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 November 2010, 06:01 GMT]
“The Muslim families evacuated from Jaffna 20 year ago will be soon resettled in their own places,” Jaffna Government Agent (GA), Ms. Imelda Sukumar said in an event held in Jaffna Osmania College Saturday. The event was organized by more than ten Muslim organizations in Jaffna in memory of the evacuation in 1990, sources in Jaffna said. Imelda Sukumar saying in the event that Sri Lanka government is correct in asserting that there is no place in Sri Lanka for any race to claim exclusive rights to it, has raised controversy among the people of Jaffna. She had previously said that there were no High Security Zones in Jaffna peninsula but only areas which have not been de-mined, a statement contrary to the truth, the sources added.
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Sinhala families to be settled in Jaffna with Chinese assistance

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 November 2010, 05:33 GMT]
Colombo government has decided to settle the Sinhala families claiming they were IDPS and demading resettlement in Jaffna on the coastal areas of Jaffna Fort and Ma’niyam-thoaddam in Kozhumpuththu’rai, sources in Jaffna said. Parts of prefabricated houses donated by China to construct 12,000 houses in the areas from Mu'rika'ndi to Mullaiththeevu to settle Sinhala families have been brought to Jaffna to construct houses for the Sinhala families. The Sinhala families claiming resettlement are lodged in the Old Jaffna Railway Station where they had arrived in early October and are looked after by the Sri Lanka Army in Jaffna.
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Mavai Senathirajah refutes Jaffna GA’s statement on Valikaamam HSZ issue

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 October 2010, 07:58 GMT]
“I am one of the victims uprooted from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone 20 years ago and the petition filed by me in court seeking resettlement is pending inquiry. It is ridiculous for Jaffna Government Agent Ms. Imelda Sukumar to claim that there are no HSZs in Jaffna peninsula,” Mavai Senathirajah, Tamil Natilonal Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian said. Ms. Imelda Sukumar, speaking at the event of the handing over of furniture by SLA to Jaffna Teaching Hospital Saturday had claimed that there were no HSZs in Jaffna peninsula but only areas which need to be cleared of landmines.
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