Government blamed for not helping resettled IDPs in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2010, 07:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka government fails in its duty to offer assistance to the resettled Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Jaffna peninsula, civil society organization said. This has become evident with Jaffna Government Agent’s statement that the UN organizations continue to assist the resettled IDPs supplying dry food rations through World Food Program (WFP) while financial help is given to them by Asian Development Bank through NECORD, they said.
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Government allows 15 NGOs to help resettled IDPs in Mullaiththeevu - GA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 March 2010, 06:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has allowed around fifteen Non-government Organizations (NGOs) to assist the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni to create livelihoods for them, Mullaiththeevu Government Agent (GA) Ms. Imelda Sukumar said in an interview to the national Tamil daily Virakesari. Projects constructing 2700 houses in the two divisional secretary areas have begun and the President’s Work Committee has issued permission to around 15 NGOs to involve in helping the resettled IDPs, she added.
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SLA soldiers obstruct ITAK candidate from campaigning in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 March 2010, 16:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers manning the check posts along the roads do not allow him to go the places where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are resettled in Ki'linochchi district, Sivagnanam Sritharan, the candidate contesting Ki'linochchi district in Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) ticket and the principal of Ki'linochchi Maha Viththiyaalayam said, in the press meet held Friday at the ITAK office on Martin Road in Jaffna where the ITAK election manifesto was released. He was forced by the soldiers to reveal the names of the persons he wants to meet and as this would put them in danger he had not given their names, Sritharan said.
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TNA releases election manifesto

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 March 2010, 12:08 GMT]
Federal solution based on shared sovereignty and right to self-determination in a contiguous north and east of Sri Lanka was the highlight of the TNA manifesto released Friday. While irreversibly committing on federal solution, the manifesto is ambiguous on the nature of the sovereignty of Eezham Tamils and their right to self determination, said Tamil political circles in their immediate responses. The term shared sovereignty is used to describe structures such as the European Union as well as federal structures with or without the right to secession. The manifesto refrains from either asserting to Tamils exercising their right to self determination to decide the national question in an internationally monitored arrangement or including the unavoidable diaspora in the political process of reaching a solution, the political circles commented further.
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SLA harasses resettled IDPs in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 2010, 11:21 GMT]
Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) allowed to resettle in some areas in Ki’linochchi and Mannaar districts are being subjected to severe restrictions and harassment by occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources close Jaffna Bishop's House said. This information was gathered from the group of Catholic Bishops of six districts who visited the said areas in Ki’linochchi and Mannaar recently, the sources said. The Bishops, however, are reluctant to officially disclose this situation in Vanni due to fear, the sources added.
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Government suppresses protest demonstration of IDPs in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 2010, 06:00 GMT]
A protest demonstration demanding immediate resettlement of people displaced from Valikaamam North occupied by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) as High Security Zone (HSZ) organized by the Welfare Organizations for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on 1 March in front of Jaffna Secretariat had to be given up due to the strong opposition to it by Jaffna Government Agent (GA) K. Ganesh, the representatives of the welfare organizations said. The GA had refused to accept the memorandum of the protestors saying that the matter of resettlement should not be made a political issue in the context of the forthcoming parliamentary election, the organizations further alleged.
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ADB assists resettled IDPs in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 March 2010, 12:43 GMT]
In the context of Sri Lanka government failing in its duty to provide assistance to the resettled Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Jaffna peninsula as promised, Asian Development Bank (ADB) has stepped in to help the IDPs, paying each of the 16,831 IDP families with the second stage payment of 25,000 rupees, sources in Jaffna said. It is alleged that the government is yet to pay the first stage of payment of 5,000 rupees to some of the IDP families, the sources added.
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Magistrate courts to be built in Vanni where IDPs are yet to be resettled

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 March 2010, 11:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka government is actively engaged in building police stations and magistrate courts in the districts of Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu in Vanni where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are yet to be resettled, sources in Vanni said. Secretary to the Ministry of Justice made a sudden visit Wednesday to Ki’linochchi and Mullaitheevu with the view to find locations for the magistrate courts to be built. He was accompanied by Buddhist Priest Rev. Athamba Buthara Kalyanasitha Thero and the magistrates of Vavuniyaa, Mannaar and the magistrates appointed to Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu, the sources added.
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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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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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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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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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IDPs evicted from army HSZ in Valikaamam again asked to register their names

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 February 2010, 03:06 GMT]
The residents of Valikaamam North evicted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to establish its High Security Zone (HSZ) have been asked to register their names with Thellippazhai Divisional Secretariat (DS) if they wish to be resettled in their properties, before Thursday. Meanwhile, IDP Welfare Organizations in Jaffna said that this is the sixth time the residents are being asked to register their names and added that this is another drama being staged in view of the forthcoming parliamentary election.
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Three-pronged Sinhala colonization in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 February 2010, 04:52 GMT]
Ko’ndachchi-Chilaavaththu’rai, Thalaimannaar Pier and Madu in Mannaar district are being particularly targeted for Sinhala-Buddhist colonies by the colonial government in Colombo, news reports from Mannaar said Sunday. Everyday, colonizers with shelter-making facilities and boats are brought through Vilpattu from Puththa’lam district and from Medawachchiya of Anuradhapura district, news sources said adding that even this Sinhalicisation is carefully planned for Buddhicisation of the Tamil Muslim and Christian dominated district. The long-term impact of the process is sure to be felt in coastal Tamil Nadu and in Tamil relationship across the seas, whatever equation imperial India may have with Colombo, Tamil circles said. Meanwhile, diplomats and agencies of Establishments who try to con Tamils need serious education on what is genocide – the Sri Lankan model, diaspora circles commented.
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Government does not reveal true number of Vanni IDPs yet to be resettled

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 February 2010, 02:31 GMT]
Though the government of Sri Lanka reports that only less than 60,000 Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in the camps remain to be resettled, more than a hundred thousand of them have not been resettled in their own places but have sought refuge with their relatives and friends while some of them live in temporary sheds put up on government lands, according to Ki’linochchi District Secretariat sources. The government issues false figures so as to create a picture that all is going well according to plans with the resettlement of Vanni IDPs, they further said.
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HSBC International opens branch in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 February 2010, 03:19 GMT]
British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Mr. Peter Hayes and HSBC Executive Director for Sri Lanka and Maldives officially opened Thursday a branch of HSBC International Bank on Kaangkeasanthu’rai Road in Jaffna town, sources in Jaffna said. The Governor of Sri Lanka Central Bank Mr. Ajith Nivard Cabraal who was also present on the occasion said that a sum of 270 million rupees have been earmarked for development projects in Northern Province but failed to reveal any such project for the current year, the sources added.
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Resettled IDPs in Jaffna must apply to vote in Parliamentary election

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 February 2010, 02:30 GMT]
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) resettled in Jaffna district should submit their applications before 17 February if they wish to vote in the forthcoming Parliamentary election, Jaffna Government Agent said in a report to local media Thursday night. The application forms duly filled in should be submitted to Jaffna Secretariat before the prescribed date, the report further said.
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International countries should urge Sri Lanka to reveal proposal to solve ethnic issue

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 February 2010, 03:52 GMT]
Civil Society Organizations in Jaffna Peninsula requested Canadian Ambassador Mr. Pruce Levy to urge international countries to exert pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka to disclose immediately if it has any proposal to solve the ethnic issue, when the Ambassador met them at several places in the peninsula. President Mahinda Rajapakse who said that he will present the proposal after the presidential election now says that he will reveal it after the announced general election, the representatives told the visiting Canada Ambassador.
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SLA constructs Maximum HSZ in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 February 2010, 04:35 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Jaffna has begun constructing an earthen dam in an area encompassing Kaangeasanthu’rai and Keerimalai in Valikaamam North as part of the new Maximum High Security Zone (MHSZ) Wednesday, sources in Jaffna said. 20 Village Officer (VO) divisions of the 27 VO divisions occupied as SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North are to be turned into the new MHSZ, the sources added.
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Colombo not answerable to UN for 80,000 IDPs remaining in Vavuniyaa camps - Minister

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 February 2010, 13:01 GMT]
About eighty thousand Internally displaced persons from Vanni region still remain in camps located in Vavuniyaa despite Sri Lanka government's assurances to the United Nations that all IDPs will be resettled by January 31. Richard Badiudeen, Minister of Resettlement and disaster relief services, told Colombo media Monday that no such assurance has been given to any organization including UN.
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