Polling cards for Vanni IDPs to be issued in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 January 2010, 02:54 GMT]
The Commissioner of Elections has announced that the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Vanni held in the detention camps in Vavuniyaa will be issued with polling cards for the presidential election, from Tuesday at Vavuniyaa Maththiya Mahaa Viththiyaalayam. However, the Election Commissioner’s announcement did not say anything about the IDPs from Ki’linochchi district who are not permitted to resettle in their own places. Ki’linochchi district falls within Jaffna electoral district and this gives room for election rigging by the ruling party, according to allegations made by Tamil political observers in Jafnna.
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TAK passes 25 resolutions in its 60th anniversary meeting

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 January 2010, 04:23 GMT]
The General Committee of Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (TAK) met Sunday in Jaffna on the 60th anniversary of its formation and passed 25 resolutions unanimously on issues related to Tamils, sources in Jaffna said. TAK said that it continues to stand firm that the Tamil ethnic issue should be resolved on the principles based on Tamil traditional homeland, Tamil Nation and self-rule based on the right to self-determination. The leader of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R. Sampanthan presided the meeting which was held in the I’lam Kalaignar Hall in Nalloor.
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Plunder for business, double enterprise of Sri Lanka Army

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 January 2010, 16:25 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army deployed in Mullaiththeevu has started dismantling and destroying the houses belonging to the Tamils, an eye-witness who recently visited Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts told TamilNet Tuesday. The SLA soldiers were seen shifting valuable timber used in buildings, windows and doors to other Sinhalese areas through Weli-ioya.
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No likelihood of Vanni IDPs being settled east of A9 road

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 January 2010, 04:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka government is actively engaged in resettling Vanni IDPs along A9 road from Oamanthai to Maangku'lam in an attempt to show the outside world that it is resettling Vanni IDPs in their own places, in view of the forthcoming presidential election, sources in Jaffna said. Resettlement in areas located east of A9 road in Vanni will not be possible in the near future, according to sources in Northern Province Governor's office. The IDPs taken to areas along A9 road from Oamanthai to Maangku'lam have been only allowed to live in places close to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps and sentry posts while neither the government nor NGOs provide them with any assistance, thee sources said.
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Jaffna youth reported missing on his way to Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 December 2009, 13:17 GMT]
A youth from Jaffna who travelled through A9 road on 14 December had gone missing after boarding Yaazh Theavi train to Colombo from Vavuniyaa, according to a complaint made to Jaffna police by his family memebers.
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2 Tamil youths arrested in Katunayake, Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 December 2009, 12:43 GMT]
Colombo Police's 'Terrorist Intelligence Division' arrested a Tamil youth in Vavuniyaa and another at Katunayake International Airport Tuesday when he was about to take a flight to India.
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Colombo-Vavuniyaa mail train derailed, 20 injured

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 December 2009, 12:33 GMT]
About twenty passengers were injured when the Colombo bound night mail train from Vavuniyaa derailed at Galgamuwa Wednesday night, the Railway control room said. The injured were admitted to nearby hospitals.
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Dengue on rise in Vavuniyaa, 15 reported dead

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 December 2009, 07:15 GMT]
Health officials in Vavuniyaa say they were struggling to control the spread of Dengue fever in the district. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan health ministry sources in Colombo said the spread of the fever has been brought under control in Matale and Colombo districts, but situation in Vavuniyaa is getting out of control.
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Passengers from Jaffna through A9 road subjected to inconvenience

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 December 2009, 07:53 GMT]
Though Sri Lanka government and its ministers say that all restrictions imposed on persons travelling from Jaffna to Vavuniyaa have been completely lifted they continue to experience undue delay and inconvenience, sources in Jaffna said. The buses carrying the passages from Jaffna have to wait at Jaffna esplande first and then allowed to go in convoys under military escort, the sources added.
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Restrictions on travel through A9 road to Jaffna lifted

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 December 2009, 02:49 GMT]
All restrictions hitherto imposed on travel and transport between Jaffna and Vavuniyaa are lifted in keeping to a directive from Jaffna Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander, Jaffna Government Agent said in a media report Thursday night. The lorries transporting goods to Jaffna will, however, be permitted only in convoys with SLA escort as usual, the report said.
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More than 1000 families displaced due to floods in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 December 2009, 02:17 GMT]
More than a thousand people have sought refuge in churches and school buildings due to floods caused by relentless rain in Jaffna peninsula. 1329 persons of 374 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) families brought from Vavuniyaa camps and settled in the abandoned tsunami shelters in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupied Maruthangkea’ni area in Vadamaraadchi had to leave the shelters and seek refuge in churches and schools, according to Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh.
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Floods displace many in Vadamaraadchi

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 December 2009, 11:39 GMT]
Continuing rain and floods in Jaffna peninsula, particularly in Vadamaraadchi North and East, have caused people from the coastal areas to seek shelter in Churches and public buildings, sources in Jaffna said. The most affected are the people brought from Vavuniyaa camps and resettled in the abandoned tsunami shelters in Ma’natkaadu in Vadmaraadchi and those who have no relatives to take responsibility of them, the sources added.
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SLA, police extort money from passengers to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 December 2009, 02:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and police personnel manning the bus terminal at Vavuniyaa demand money from the people travelling to Jaffna, who have to report for checking before travel, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The bus travel being the cheapest, people choose it rather than ship or flight which are run by agencies of prominent persons of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). The demand for bribe from passengers at Vavuniyaa appears to be a ploy to divert them to travel by ship or planes, the sources further said.
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“We are not going to start another armed struggle” – PLOTE Sitharathan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 December 2009, 10:25 GMT]
“We are not preparing ourselves to launch another armed struggle. The accusations that we had abducted minors from Vavuniyaa camps are baseless,” Sitharathan, the leader of People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) said in a press meet held Saturday in PLOTE office in Jaffna. He further said that after the talks held with President Mahinda Rajapakse his party has decided to support him in the forthcoming presidential election, sources in Jaffna said.
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Bus passengers through A9 road suffer undue delay

[TamilNet, Saturday, 12 December 2009, 03:42 GMT]
Passengers travelling in Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) buses through A9 road between Jaffna and Vavuniyaa are held for nearly six to eight hours in their buses until Sri Lanka Army (SLA) allow the buses to leave in a convoy, civil society sources in Jaffna raised concern. The passengers are not allowed to get down from the buses even to answer calls of nature, they said.
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Parents of Tamil detainees hold protest march in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 December 2009, 14:19 GMT]
Parents and relatives of Tamil prisoners held in Sri Lanka prisons in Vavuniyaa, Anuradhapura, and Jaffna held a peaceful demonstration Thursday in Vavuniyaa demanding the release of hundreds of Tamil civilians. The march commenced from the Vavuniyaa regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and concluded at Vavuniyaa District Secretariat building, according to sources in Vavuniyaa.
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Cluster voting booths to be installed in resettlement areas in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 December 2009, 03:17 GMT]
Cluster voting booths in the forthcoming presidential election are to be installed in Karaichchi and Poonakari areas where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) had been resettled, Jaffna Assistant Election Commissioner (AEO), S. Suthakar said. Meanwhile, provisions have been made to enable IDP voters who had lost their identification documents due to the war, he further said.
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1,27,905 IDPs still held in Vavuniyaa camps

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 December 2009, 03:31 GMT]
While Sri Lanka government claims that Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) held in Vavuniyaa Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention centres can move freely, 1,27,905 of them are still being held in the camps, according to information given by Northern Province governor, Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri, in a special press meet held by him Monday in Jaffna Secretariat.
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Colombo's claims of free access a lie, says media, ICRC

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 December 2009, 03:30 GMT]
Reporters and aid workers said they are still being barred from visiting Government internment camps housing thousands of Tamil refugees, days after Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama proclaimed on British television that the areas were "totally open."
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Global meet urged to discuss environmental genocide by Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 December 2009, 13:18 GMT]
Decades-long massive military operations and occupation of Tamil Eelam by Sri Lankan forces have caused grave environmental destruction to the north and east of the island. Recovery is difficult as the Tamil homeland is in the dry and arid part of the island, depending on scanty and truant northeast monsoon, writes environmentalist and freelance journalist T. Thipaakaran. It may take more than 150 years for the plundered timber trees to grow again, he says. Tamil academic circles viewing the situation as 'ethnically motivated environmental rape taking place with international abetment,' urge the Denmark meet to discuss the challenge of curbing such crimes of ‘state sovereignty’ and to explore ways of entrusting in such situations the control of land to the sons and daughters of the soil, who only could take a genuine interest in the recovery and protection of their environment.
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