Colombo schemes Sinhalicised capital for North

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 June 2010, 05:52 GMT]
Similar to the Sinhalicisation of Trincomalee, the capital of the East, Colombo plans for a new, Sinhalicised capital for the North too at Ki'linochchi, administrative sources working for Colombo on the project said. Ki'linochchi is being prepared for that with an extensive military cantonment with permanent houses for military personnel, cultivation lands for them, an airstrip at Ira'naimadu, new Buddhist temples and by not allowing the local population to their lands. For every three people there is one military personnel at present. When resettled, the local Tamils will be herded into pockets and there will be a new population, considerably Sinhalicised, the sources said adding that with the completion of the plot, there won’t be even one city or administrative centre existing for Tamils in the island.
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Resettled Vanni civilians left uncared for

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2010, 07:25 GMT]
130 families of uprooted Vanni civilians resettled four days ago in Oottuuppulam, a village along A9 road near Muruka’ndi in Ki’linochchi district had to seek shelter under trees in the pouring rain Tuesday night as they were not provided with tarpaulins to put up temporary shelter, a local NGO official in Ki’linochchi said. The resettled civilians had not been given even the dry food rations by government authorities in charge of resettlement in Vanni, he said.
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SLA constructs big base on Pa’n’nai coast near Jaffna Fort

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 June 2010, 16:46 GMT]
Hundreds of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are actively engaged in constructing a big base on the coastal stretch of Meenaadchipuram between Pa’n’nai and Naavaanthu’rai near Jaffna Fort, allocated for resettlement of uprooted civilians, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Jaffna SLA Commander Mahinda Kathurusinghe recently said in a press meet that the SLA 512 Division base presently located in the occupied private properties in Jaffna town including Subas and Gnanam hotels are to be soon relocated to another place.
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Funds allocated for resettled persons remain unused in Batticaloa district

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 16:20 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa district MP, P. Selvarasa, accused that the 5792 million rupees allocated to provide basic facilities to the resettled persons uprooted from areas in Batticaloa district during the 2006 military offensive on Paduvaankarai have not been utilized by the related authorities. Selvarasa’s accusation comes when reports are issued claiming that the needs of the resettled civilians have been considerably met, following the recent official visit to Batticaloa by Minister of Resettlement, Milroy Fernando and Depurty minister, Vinayagamoorhty Murlitharan.
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Illegal excavation of limestone threatens ecology of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 04:05 GMT]
Threatening the entire groundwater and fragile ecology of Jaffna peninsula, a private Sinhalese company is engaged in the illegal excavation of limestone in the High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North while Rajapaksa government refuses to reveal details of this enterprise in the area from Maaviddapuram to Keerimalai where the uprooted residents have not been allowed to resettle for the past twenty years. The indiscriminate excavation of limestone in a 4 sq km area at depths of nearly 40 feet has already caused seepage of sea water and it is feared the area becoming submerged. The underground channels that bring in freshwater to the innumerable aquifers of the peninsula, have an underneath entry into sea adjacent to the locality of the quarries. It is obvious how indiscriminate quarrying and the possibility of seawater coming inside can affect the potable water of the masses.
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Akashi visits Ki’linochchi for the first time after war

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 June 2010, 19:06 GMT]
Yasushi Akashi, the special envoy appointed by Japan during the Norwegian facilitated negotiations between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), accompanied by Basil Rajapaksa, handed over agricultural implements to some of the resettled Vanni civilians Friday in an event held in Ki’linochchi town. Yasushi Akashi who had held talks with the LTTE in Ki’linochchi was visiting the town for the first time after Sri Lankan military occupied the entire Vanni.
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JVP leader fails to present a specific political solution for ethnic issue, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 June 2010, 16:23 GMT]
Somawanse Amarasinghe, leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and parliamentarian, was unable to deliver an unambiguous answer to questions raised by media persons who wanted to know the position of his party in finding a political solution for the ethnic issue, in a press meet held in Jaffna town Wednesday evening. Meanwhile, Somawanse Amarasinghe who had come to Jaffna Tuesday evening after a three-day visit to Vanni said that his group was subjected to harassment by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers who did not permit them to visit the resettled Vanni residents in some parts of Vanni.
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Swiss ambassador to Sri Lanka visits Jaffna, German ambassador's visit cancelled

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 June 2010, 18:39 GMT]
Ms. Ruth Flint, Switzerland ambassador to Sri Lanka arrived in Jaffna Monday where she met Jaffna Government Agent (GA) K. Ganesh in Jaffna Secretariat and discussed development projects carried out by Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) in Jaffna peninsula. Incidentally, TamilNet had reported Friday the construction of a school by CDC in Maravanpulavu in Jaffna district at a cost of 18 million rupees where people have not resettled due to insecurity. Meanwhile, the German ambassador to Sri Lanka who was to participate in a cultural program Monday organized by German Cultural Society in Jaffna had cancelled the visit without any official information for the last minute cancellation of the visit, sources in Jaffna said.
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Japanese envoy Akashi to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 June 2010, 13:54 GMT]
Yasushi Akashi, the special envoy appointed by Japan during the Norwegian facilitated negotiations between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is to commence a five day visit to the island of Sri Lanka on Tuesday June 15. Japan was the largest donor besides Europe and the United States, before Rajapaksa government turned towards China, India and Iran in its war against Tamils. Japan, together with the USA, the EU and Norway constituted the Tokyo Co-Chairs, which formally represented the role of the 'International Community' in the disastrous peace process that altered the balance of power in favour of Colombo, enabling the Sri Lankan state to wage a genocidal war on Tamils.
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Resettled people in Vanni suffer increasing SLA harassment

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 June 2010, 04:30 GMT]
Disappearances, sexual abuse and extortion by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers in Vanni where people have been allowed to resettle have increased and the victims are helpless as there are no authorities to complain against the violence except to the SLA in Vanni, a government officer in Vanni said. Meanwhile, SLA earmarks properties with ‘Reserved for SLA’ notice boards and the owners of the marked properties have to pay large sums of money to claim their properties back, a worker of an NGO in Vanni said.
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Students, schools in Vanni disregarded

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 June 2010, 04:23 GMT]
The teachers and heads of schools which have begun to function in Vanni where people have been allowed to resettle are facing insurmountable difficulties as most of the school buildings and furniture have been destructed in the war on Vanni, education circles in Vanni complain. While the government does not provide even the basic facilities the humanitarian organizations in the North, both local and international, disregard the education sector in Vanni preferring to work in Jaffna and Vavuniyaa, they said. International humanitarian organizations including UNICEF and Swiss Development Corporation spend their funds in Jaffna and Vauniyaa on various projects while the students and schools in Vanni suffer even without the basic facilities, they added.
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Two civilians dead, two injured in mine blast in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 June 2010, 17:59 GMT]
Failure to remove land mines and explosives in Thanangki’lappu in Thenmaraadchi where resettlement of uprooted civilians was permitted by government authorities was the cause for the deaths of two family men Monday evening while seriously causing injuring two elderly men, when an explosive device went off, sources in Jaffna said. The authorities had permitted resettlement in Thanangki’lappu on the assurance of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Thenmaraadchi that the de-mining of the area had been completed.
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SLA soldiers harass resettled women during nights in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 June 2010, 20:29 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier who broke into a house in Thirunakar in Ki’linochchi Friday midnight and attempted to sexually harass a woman was chased away by neighbours, according to complaints made by the resettled families to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, N. Siritharan. The soldier who tried to escape the chasing men accidentally fell into a well on the way and had to remain in the well until rescued by fellow soldiers who came that way in a tractor as the men who chased him did not pull him out.
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Former SLA Commander to be appointed as Mullaiththeevu GA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 June 2010, 16:53 GMT]
One of the former Commanders of Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Major Gen. C. R. de Silva, is to be appointed as the new Government Agent (GA) to Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Colombo government and SLA had already begun changing Mullaiththeevu district into a Sinhalese area by declaring it as Weli Oya district consisting of Pathaviyaa, Ma’nalaa’ru, parts of Vavuniniyaa North and Anuradhapura. The appointment of a former Sinhalese military commander to Mullaiththeevu district as GA is another calculated step in making Mullaiththeevu district a Sinhalese area, the sources added.
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5 male corpses exhumed from toilet pit in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 May 2010, 11:43 GMT]
Five male bodies estimated to be between 20 to 35 years of age, in highly decomposed state and packed securely in five separate bags were exhumed from the toilet pit of a house in Ka'neasapuram in Ki’linochchi under the supervision of Vavuniyaa Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) Dr. P. Sritharan and in the presence of Ki’linochchi magistrate Monday morning, sources in Ki’linochchi said. Some of the bodies had clothes with Tiger stripes, some in Lamb Black uniforms used by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and some in ordinary civilian dress, the sources added.
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Minister Douglas Devananda to launch a new Tamil daily in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 May 2010, 16:32 GMT]
The leader of Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) Douglas Devananda, a cabinet minister in the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), who continues to publicly accuse the three Tamil dailies published in Jaffna of having denied him and his party equal opportunity and sufficient cooperation during the last parliamentary elections, is actively engaged in launching a new Tamil daily in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. Minister Devananda had in person offered higher wages to the members of the editorial boards of the three dailies published in Jaffna in an attempt to lure them to his new daily, the sources added.
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Corpses located in toilet pit in Ki’linochchi to be exhumed Monday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 May 2010, 16:01 GMT]
The plastic bags containing six corpses found dumped in a toilet pit of a house in Kaneasapuram in Ki’linochchi are to be dug out Monday in the presence of the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) from Vavuniyaa Government Hospital, on the directive of Ki’linochchi magistrate who visited the site. Members of the family resettled in the said house in February had located Saturday dead bodies of massacred victims, buried inside their toilet pit. Ki’linochchi parliamentarian Sritharan who visited the house and saw the toilet pit said that the killings must have been a planned affair.
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Sinhala names given to junctions in Mullaiththeevu district by SLA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 May 2010, 09:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) forces that occupy Vanni after the recent war have put up new name boards in Sinhala language only with new Sinhala names for many road junctions and streets in Mullaiththeevu district. SLA, besides erecting special camps and High Security Zones in strategic places in Mullaiththeevu, is engaged in changing the entire district like any other typical Sinhalese area in the country, sources in Vanni said. The photos here were taken a few weeks ago and the SLA soldiers posted at the junctions explained what the Sinhala names mean and why they had been chosen.
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Dead bodies located inside a toilet pit in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 May 2010, 15:45 GMT]
Members of a family recently resettled in Ka'neasapuram in Ki'iinochchi after being displaced from their house, located Saturday dead bodies of massacred victims, buried inside their toilet pit, sources in Ki'linochchi said. The house was located 1 km west of A9.
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Sinhalese Buddhists celebrate Vesak grandly in the North

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 May 2010, 18:46 GMT]
Sinhalese Buddhists from South and the government armed forces in the North celebrated Thursday and Friday the annual Buddhist Vesak festival in Jaffna, Ki’linochchi and Vanni in a grand scale in comparison with last year, sources in Jaffna said. Sri Lanka government provided full support for the celebrations while security measures were strengthened in Jaffna with 700 additional policemen deployed along with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers, the sources added. Vehicles were not allowed near Duraippah Stadium where grand Vesak lanterns had been hoisted.
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