Paramilitary abducts IDP boys as more flee Vaharai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 January 2007, 15:44 GMT]
Two boys, displaced from Vaharai to Kannankiramam village in Valaichenai, were abducted by armed paramilitary men at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. On Thursday, 3 youths belonging to IDP families were abducted by the paramilitary. Residents fear increased abductions as 4700 persons from Vaharai region crossed over the entry point at Kajuwatte, 5 km north of Mankerni, Friday and Saturday, and around 1200 civilians reached Singapura area through Kattumurivu. Abductions of underage youth, taking place almost on a daily basis, are no longer complained to Police following threats from paramilitary.
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SLA troops enter vacated Vaharai hospital

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 January 2007, 12:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army sources in Colombo claimed Friday afternoon that their troops have entered the Vaharai hospital without facing any resistance from the Tigers. Liberation Tigers Military Spokesman, verifying that the Tigers had relocated their positions in Panichchankerni where the SLA had obstructed the land route to Vaharai village, said LTTE had no combatants in Vaharai village where the hospital is located. Meanwhile, thousands of civilians who crossed through Kadjuwatte exit and entry point were escorted to Mankerni Catholic school and provided midday meal.
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SLA shelling on Vaharai hospital triggers exodus

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 January 2007, 06:02 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army stepped up shelling on Vaharai hospital Thursday night forcing 15,000 civilians to flee the Vaharai hospital area. 9000 Tamil civilians, denied basic needs, were forced to flee towards Kajuwatte entry and exit point Friday early morning, according to Vaharai Divisional Secretary, S. Giritharan. 200 tractors with fleeing civilians have reached Kajuwatte. Many women and children were fleeing on foot and bicycles. The only doctor at the hospital, T. Varatharajan, said the civilian IDPs who had sought refuge in the hospital area, were forced to flee as heavy shelling was stepped up during the early hours on Friday. Six civilians were injured Thursday night.
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SLA shells Vaharai hospital, 5 civilians wounded

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 January 2007, 17:37 GMT]
Sri Lanka army stationed at Mankerny and Kajuwatta camps have been continuously pounding the besieged Vaharai area with artillery shells from Thursday morning. SLA fired shells targeted Vaharai hospital area in the morning and in the evening and wounded five persons. Despite an urgent message passed to ICRC notifying the attack, after the SLA shelling Thursday morning between 6:00 and 10:00 a.m., the hopsital vicinty was attacked again in the evening at 5:15 p.m. wounding four civilians seriously. Targeting of medical facilities is a serious breach of the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) that applies to both internal and international armed conflicts.
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SLA commander transfers paramilitary personnel in Arayampathy

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 January 2007, 15:57 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army 23-3 Brigade Commander Colonel Subasinghe, in an attempt to calm down the objections from the Muslims who oppose the armed passage of Karuna paramilitary personnel via Kathankudy Muslim town, after the recent violence in Arayampathy Kathankudy border, has transferred a key paramilitary operative and fellow personnel to the camps elsewhere. New paramilitary personnel have been posted the house attached to the STF camp in Arayampathy, according to Muslim representatives in Kaththankudy.
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Sri Lanka steps up offensive on Vaharai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 January 2007, 08:35 GMT]
Heavy casualties were reported in fresh fighting as Sri Lankan armed forces launched a three pronged ground offensive towards Panichchankerni, south of Vaharai, towards Eachilampattu and Uppooral in the north. 12 Tiger fighters were killed and 7 wounded according to LTTE Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan who also claimed more than 40 SLA troopers were killed. Meanwhile Sri Lankan military sources in Colombo claiming to have inflicted a heavy casualty, more than 30, on the Tigers said 4 Sri Lankan troopers were killed, inclduing an officer and 20 wounded.
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Unfolding misery

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 January 2007, 09:50 GMT]
More than 72,000 Tamil civilians internally displaced due to the military confrontations in the East, residing in 50 temporary camps in Batticaloa district's LTTE and GoSL controlled areas, are facing serious shortage of food, accommodation, drinking water, sanitation and toilet facilities, according to Batticaloa District Secretariat. Muttur east clashes, followed by battle for Sampoor, and now Vaharai clashes intensifying, the increasing numbers of Internally Displaced (IDPs) in Batticaloa face a dismal future.
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Mosque leaders urge Muslim Tamil unity, blame paramilitary for violence

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 January 2007, 08:34 GMT]
Representatives of the Federation of Mosques in Kathankudy, Saturday, in a bid to calm down tension between communities in the border settlements between Kathankudy Muslim and Arayampathy Tamil areas, urged the civilians not to fall prey to the forces seeking to damage Muslim Tamil harmony, after Karuna paramilitary personnel attached to the Sri Lankan counter-insurgency Special Task Force (STF) camp in Arayampathy had attacked Muslim travellers Friday, causing the victims to seek refuge in Kathankudy Mosque. Paramilitary violence and threats posed by armed "Jihad" men against Tamils have ceased and normalcy was reported in the area Sunday.
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Vaharai tragedy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 January 2007, 02:05 GMT]
Following Sri Lanka's Military Commander Lt.Gen Sarath Fonseka's assertion that Sri Lankan Forces will evict Liberation Tigers from the East withn the next two months, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has intensified shelling and artillery attacks into Vaharai.
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Shelters in schools affect education in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 January 2007, 02:42 GMT]
Education activities of children in Trincomalee district are badly affected due 17 government schools being used as temporary shelters for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), educational sources said.
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TRO urges GoSL to guarantee security of humanitarian workers

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 January 2007, 16:22 GMT]
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation, which has been subjected to Sri Lankan Police raids and paramilitary attacks, has urged the Government of Sri Lanka to guarantee security of the humanitarian staff of the organistion. The Trincomalee office of the TRO was attacked Saturday and Sunday nights by armed men, believed to be paramilitary members operated by the Sri Lanka Army. The attack on Trinomcalee TRO office comes after Sri Lankan police raid on Friday.
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SOS from Vaharai

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 January 2007, 13:49 GMT]
Tamils Rehabilitation Organization, in an urgent press release has said that 15,000 Internally Displaced Persons, denied food by the Sri Lanka Army obstruction of the transport of food to Vaharai, are on the verge of death due to starvation.
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SL Police raids TRO Colombo office

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 January 2007, 08:26 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police, without producing any warrant, raided the Colombo office of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation Saturday morning and searched the office, NGO officials at the TRO office in Colombo told media. The raid on Colombo office by the CID, follows after the raids on Vavuniya and Trincomalee offices Friday. "The continuous harassment of TRO is having a tremendously negative impact on the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the affected people of the NorthEast," the TRO, the only organization working in some of the most severely affected parts of the NorthEast, said in a press statement Saturday.
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MP urges UN to persuade Colombo on safe-haven

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 January 2007, 06:57 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian, S. Jeyanandamoorthy, has urged Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, to prevail upon the Sri Lankan Government to declare a safe-haven in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) besieged Vaharai region, for the protection of the civilians from artillery, multi-barrel rocket attacks, and aerial bombardment from the Sri Lankan forces. Government of Sri Lanka has earlier rejected the call to declare a humanitarian zone encompassing the Vaharai hospital and the surrounding areas for the protection of the civilians in Vaharai.
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29 Batticaloa schools not re-opened, occupied by IDPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 17:39 GMT]
Twenty-four Tamil medium schools in the district of Batticaloa have not reopened for the current academic year 2007 Tuesday as they are occupied by hundreds of internally displaced families from Vaharai division as temporary shelters. These schools are located in the government-controlled areas in the education zones of Batticaloa, Kalkudah, provincial education ministry sources said.
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Aerial attack on Padahuthurai, a crime against humanity - Bishop

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 10:22 GMT]
The Bishop of Mannar Diocese, Rt Rev Rayappu Joseph, who visited Padahuthurai hamlet, which was completely destroyed by indiscriminate aerial bombardment by the Sri Lanka Air Force Tuesday morning, has condemned the bombardment and said the attack had destroyed the settlement of the Internally Displaced persons. There was no military installation of the LTTE in the area, the Bishop told media. The Bishop, calling the bombardment "a crime against humanity," urged the International Community to send independent observers to NorthEast. Death toll has risen to 15, including 7 children below age nine , a pregnant woman, her child and husband.
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Battle for Vaharai

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2007, 11:35 GMT]
Vaharai, a large backwater on Sri Lanka’s east coast, is an area with large fertile fields, lagoons and virgin forests in the northern part of the Batticaloa district. More than 15,000 residents and IDPs are now trapped in Vaharai as the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) conducts its brutal campaign to evict Tamils from the region, closing A-15 the main access road to the town, and imposing economic embargo, while Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) kfirs fly bombing raids terrorizing the civilians to flee. "They [LTTE] won't be able to keep the civilians for long. Food and medicine is in short supply," Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, the top military spokesman, told Reuters in a interview Friday.
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Vaharai IDPs rally, demand International relief, re-opening of A-15

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 December 2006, 11:28 GMT]
Thousands of Tamils, most of them Internally Displaced Persons in the Sri Lanka Army besieged Vaharai region, Friday at 10:00 a.m. marched from Vaharai school IDP camp towards the Vaharai Hospital in a prosession, and handed over an appeal addressed to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, calling on the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to allow the International Relief to reach Vaharai and re-open the A-15 access route, that has remained closed by the Sri Lanka Army for the last 2 months. The IDPs also raised concerns over the alleged move to select Sampoor region to set up a Coal Power Plant preventing the internally displaced people of the area from resettling in their own lands.
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80% tsunami displaced in NorthEast, still in temporary shelters- TRO

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 December 2006, 12:19 GMT]
"Almost 80% of the Tsunami displaced in some districts of the NorthEast of the island, which sustained 65% of the tsunami destruction and deaths, continue to languish in Temporary Shelter Camps or have been displaced once again due to military offensives, bombing, and shelling," said Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) in its two-year tsunami report, issued in Colombo, Tuesday.
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Besieged Vaharai continues to starve

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 December 2006, 14:18 GMT]
More than 20 000 civilians in the Sri Lanka military besieged territory Vaharai are again forced to survive without humanitarian supplies. Children are again forced search for fruits and catch fish and crabs on their own to eat as main meal. Parents continue to suffer from psychological trauma witnessing the plight of their children.
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