Limestone in Valikaamam HSZ sent to Galle in South

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 May 2010, 16:58 GMT]
Thousands of Southern Sinhalese labourers are engaged in excavating lime stone in the Sri Lanka Amy (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North where its residents had been evicted by SLA, Jaffna MP, Appathurai Vinayagamoorthy accused in a press meet held in Jaffna Thursday. The excavated limestone is taken to the cement factories in Galle in ships and via A9 road, he further said. Government which does not permit the evicted residents of Valikaamam North to resettle in their own places has freely allowed thousands of Sinhalese labourers to work within the HSZ.
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NP Governor accuses Jaffna NGOs of malpractice in assisting resettled Vanni families

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 May 2010, 16:41 GMT]
Northern Province Governor, Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri has directed Jaffna Assistant Commissioner of Local Government (ACLG) to collect the details of assistance given to each person resettled in Jaffna district, accusing the local Non-government Organizations (NGOs) and humanitarian agencies which had provided assistance to the uprooted families of malpractice, sources in Jaffna said. Governor’s accusation against the NGOs and his directive to collect detailed information of the assistance provided by them is the first step to bring the NGOs under government’s control, NGO circles complained.
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Uprooted civilians from Vadamaraadchi East refused permission to resettle

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 May 2010, 05:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander and Jaffna Government Agent (GA) who met the uprooted civilians from Vadamaraadchi East still held in Thenmaraadchi interim refugee camps told them Sunday that they cannot be resettled in their own places immediately, sources in Jaffna said. Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) which controls Vadamaraadchi is reluctant to allow resettlement of the original residents, mainly fishermen, as they do not want to hinder the Sinhalese fishermen who now monopolize the deep seas with their trawlers from Naakarkoayil to Mullaiththeevu where most of the fish are caught in Jaffna peninsula, fisheries society representatives in Vadamaraadchi said.
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NP Governor orders priority to Southern contractors in Northern development tenders

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 May 2010, 20:20 GMT]
Northern Province Governor and former Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander, Major. Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri, has directed Government Secretaries in the North to prioritize contactors from South in allocating tenders to all development work in the North, sources in Jaffna said. In the context of North being invaded by Southern Sinhalese businessmen and traders Governor’s directive effectively further denies all opportunities to local contractors in the development works in North, the sources added.
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Government planning to bring Sinhalese colonists again to Ma’nalaa’ru in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 May 2010, 16:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka government is accelerating its plans to colonize Ma’nalaa’ru area in Vanni with Sinhalese people and also to bring back the Sinhalese people who had been earlier brought to this area as colonists, some government officers who had visited Ma’nalaa’ru area said. Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and other de-mining organizations are now at work in the above Ma’nalaa’ru area which includes Janakapura, Parakrampura and the traditional Tamil village Othiyamalai. The government has no plans to resettle the ancient Tamil inhabitants of Othiyamalai, the officers said.
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SLA refuses to permit TNA parliamentarians into Menik Farm camp in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 May 2010, 12:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officials in Menik Farm Camp in Vavuniyaa did not permit Saturday a group of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians to visit the said detention centre and see the Vanni civilians held, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The SLA officials insisted on prior permission from Ministry of Defence Secretary, Gothabaya Rajapakse and stood firm in their decision though the MPP tried to argue their way into the centre, the sources added.
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Champoor resettlement not in agenda- Governor

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 May 2010, 18:28 GMT]
Nearly one thousand seven hundred uprooted families from traditional Tamil villages, such as Navaratnapuram, Koonitheivu, Champoor, Soodaikuda, and Kadatkaraichchenai in Moothoor east in Trincomalee district since April 2006 in the military operation launched by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) will not be resettled immediately. The decision to resettle them should come from the Government of Sri Lanka, Eastern Provincial Governor Mohan Wijewickrema told a delegation of the Association of Champoor Uprooted Tamil Families that met him in the Governor's located in Trincomalee Friday, sources said.
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SL government stages hidden agenda in Jaffna peninsula – Jaffna MP

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 May 2010, 17:23 GMT]
Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian, accused Sri Lanka Government for purposely encouraging crimes in Jaffna peninsula such as abduction and killing for ransom, robbery, sexual abuse of lonely women so that it could continue to hold the peninsula in its authority, in a press meet held Monday at his Jaffna office. He further blamed the government for having abandoned the resettled civilians in Mullaiththeevu district who had been uprooted and detained during the war on Vanni.
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Uprooted Vanni civilian shot dead, first killing in Jaffna after May 2009

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 May 2010, 17:51 GMT]
A 26-year-old male, Sivalingam Satheesan, an uprooted civilian who settled in Jaffna after leaving the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) operated internment camp in Vavuniyaa, has been gunned down on Jaffna - Point Pedro Road Sunday around 7:30 p.m. by armed men riding a motorbike. The killing has taken place in SLA-guarded road near Ceylinco insurance company and Vadamaraadchi telecommunication building. This is the first killing by gunmen reported in Jaffna after the Eelam War - 4 ended in May 2009 in Vanni. The targeted killing of Vanni IDP comes in the wake of a recent visit by Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to Jaffna. Tension prevails in the area.
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Indian aid to resettled Vanni civilians left undistributed along A9 road

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 April 2010, 16:06 GMT]
Materials to construct shelters given as aid by India meant for the resettled families in Vanni have not been fully distributed to them and are left unattended along A9 road due to noncooperation of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Vanni and their refusal to grant permission for distribution, sources close to Ki’linochchi Secretariat said. SLA authorities purposely delay and obstruct distribution of these materials with the aim to give them to Sinhalese families to be colonized in places including Kokkaavil and Maangku’lam in Vanni, according to some Tamil National Alliance (TNA) newly elected representatives. The distribution of the materials had not been carried out by the government officials due to noncooperation by SLA authorities in Vanni.
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New Year celebrations dull in North

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 April 2010, 07:00 GMT]
The Tamil New Year was observed in a low key in the North as well as in the East of the country. The Vanni uprooted civilians held in Vavuniyaa Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps, not allowed to resettle in their own places despite countless promises and dates announced by the government, had other unfulfilled basic needs in their minds than the arrival of the New Year, according to sources in Vavuniyaa. Meanwhile, Sinhalese Buddhists from the South attended in unprecedented numbers in the religious ceremonies held in Nainaatheevu Naakavikaarai, Aariyaku’lam Naakavikaarai and the newly built Buddhist Vikaarai in Ki’linochchi, sources in Jaffna said.
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HR activist in Australia condemns freezing asylumn to Tamils

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 April 2010, 23:24 GMT]
The Australian Government has introduced a suspension of the processing of new asylum applications from Sri Lanka. The suspension has been made as a result of the "evolving circumstances" said a joint media release from the Australian Ministers for Immigration and Citizenship, Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs on Friday. Meanwhile, Julian Burnside, an Australian barrister and a human rights advocate, has condemned the move in an article published in The Age, stating that Tamils from Sri Lanka are fleeing because they face genocide in Sri Lanka.
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Thousands of uprooted civilians denied voting: CaFFE election monitors

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 April 2010, 08:46 GMT]
Many interned Tamil civilians in Menik Farm in Vavuniyaa were told by Sri Lankan election officials that they must go to Ki'linochchi Cluster Polling Station to vote, while election officials in Ki'linochchi station were instructing civilians that they must proceed to the Menik Farm Polling Station to vote, said Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) in a statement issued Thursday. "In the Killinochchi Central College Cluster Polling Centers only 362 out of 7,504 total registered voters have been able to cast their votes in the first set of 8 cluster polling stations. Furthermore, in the second set of 8 cluster polling centers only 283 out of 10,240 voters have been able to cast their votes by 12.00 noon," CaFFE statement said.
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Uprooted civilians sell dry food rations on streets in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 April 2010, 04:46 GMT]
Uprooted civilians from Vanni in Vavuniyaa internment camps are forced to sell their dry food rations on the streets of Vavuniyaa as they are unable to fulfill their other pressing needs including milk food for their children, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Help from NGOs being unavailable they are driven to sell their dry food rations for less than half the market price to meet their other vital needs. The uprooted persons resettled in Vanni and in Jaffna district too face the same predicament, sources from Vanni and Jaffna said.
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Resettled families in Vanni suffer in unrelenting rain

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 March 2010, 18:45 GMT]
Vanni uprooted faimiles resettled in haste by the Sri Lanka government without any basic facilities or proper structures have sought refuge under trees as persistent rain, gale and floods had destroyed their temporary tents and tin-roofed shacks, sources in Vanni said. There are no solid buildiings for them to seek shelter in as all of them have been razed to the ground by the Sri Lankan Army during the last phase of the war on Vanni, the sources added.
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French Ambassador to Sri Lanka visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 March 2010, 18:23 GMT]
The French Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Ms. Christine Robichon, accompanied by two key officials of the embassy visited Jaffna peninsula Thursday where she first met Jaffna Government Agent (GA) K. Ganesh at Jaffna Secretariat. She later went to the French Friendship Cultural Centre (FFCC) located in Thirunelveali to observe its activities, sources in Jaffna said.
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2 resettled Vanni IDPs gone missing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 March 2010, 16:19 GMT]
A 17-year-old student from Sangkaanai in Jaffna peninsula and a family man from Naaranthanai in the islets of Jaffna, both Internally Displaced Persons brought from Vavuniyaa camps and resettled in Jaffna district by Sri Lanka Army, had been reported missing by their family members to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Jaffna office. The mother of the student and the wife of the family man had made the complaints to HRC.
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“All military camps in Jaffna peninsula will be scrapped if UNP wins” – Ranil

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 March 2010, 16:25 GMT]
Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of United National Party (UNP), who arrived in Jaffna accompanied by his wife said that all the military camps in Jaffna peninsula will be scrapped except Palaali Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp, in the UNP election campaign meeting held in Jaffna Veerasingham Hall Friday. “High Security Zones are no longer necessary in the peninsula and the people evacuated from these places will be immediately resettled in their own properties if UNP becomes the ruling party in the general election,” he further said.
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Government engaged in Sinhalese colonization in Kokkaavil – Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 March 2010, 18:17 GMT]
Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) former Jaffna parliamentarian and a TNA candidate contesting Jaffna electorate, accused Sri Lanka government of systematically colonizing Kokkaavil in Mullaiththevu district along A9 road with Sinhalese, in the TNA election campaign meeting held Thursday in Chuzhipuram-Tholpuram area, sources in Jaffna said. He also accused Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers and soldiers of dismantling the vehicles abandoned by Vanni residents when they were driven to Mu’l’livaaikkaal and selling the parts in Vavuniyaa and Anuradapura making huge profit.
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TNA candidates meet SLA officers in Ki’linochchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 March 2010, 20:55 GMT]
Former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians Mavai Senathirajah and Suresh Premachandran, held a meeting with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers in Ki’linochchi Tuesday where they brought to their attention about TNA candidates as well as contestants of Tamil National United Front (TNUF) being obstructed from canvassing among the resettled people in Ki’linochchi district recently, according to Suresh Premachandran. The SLA officers have now agreed to allow candidates to meet the resettled people in Ki’linochchi and canvass among them but whether the SLA soldiers manning the check posts will carry out the instructions of their superiors is yet to be seen, he added.
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