374 Vanni IDP families remain in Trinco transit centres

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 02:51 GMT]
Three hundred seventy four IDP families out of three hundred eight nine families brought to Trincomalee district from Vavuniyaa internment camps three weeks ago to be resettled in their villages are still held under detention in transit centres located in four schools under heavy security of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), sources in Trincomalee said.
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SL Army bus kills Tamil girl student in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 September 2009, 10:03 GMT]
An eleven year-old Tamil girl, Sarma Suhanthini, of Chaanthachoalai in Vavuniyaa died on the spot Friday around 6:00 p.m when a Sri Lanka Army bus, transporting troops from the north, knocked her down along Thaa’ndiku’lam-Vavuniyaa A-9 highway. The accident took place in front of Pramanthu Vithiyaalayam in Thaa’ndiku’lam, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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Indian envoy listens to preparations on IDPs withstanding monsoon

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 September 2009, 00:55 GMT]
The Indian High commissioner in Colombo, Mr. Alok Prasad, on Saturday visited internment camps in Vavuniyaa and held discussions with the militarised 'Competent Authority' for IDPs in the Northern Province, Maj. Gen. Kamal Goonaratne, and the Sri Lankan Government Agent for Vavuniyaa Mrs. Charles. Amidst all what have been listed by the Indian High Commission, as matters discussed by the High Commissioner, observers give much significance to his listening to briefings on making facilities for the internment camp mates to face flooding and water logging during the forthcoming monsoon. Tamil circles find it as tacit acceptance by India for prolonging the internment camps beyond this year's rainy season.
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‘Paranoid Colombo machinates IDP human shield’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2009, 13:43 GMT]
A whole world is duped in what Colombo is machinating in the name of resettlement of IDPs, Tamil circles in Jaffna commented, citing Sri Lanka Navy’s new internment camps around its installations in the island sector of Jaffna. Colombo’s aim is threefold: a human shield of civilians for its occupying forces, prevention of rightful owners reoccupying houses and lands around its military installations and eventually confiscating those lands in strategic areas for its expansion and other demographic conspiracies in the very heart of Tamil homeland, pointed out Tamil circles adding that a paranoid Sri Lankan state can never deliver justice to Tamils. The core truth is that the barbed-wire camps came up because the world powers wanted it. But some powers by not directly taking responsibility and some others like India by sitting on international action continue injustice, Jaffna circles said.
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SLA shoots 6 including women, children in Cheddiku'lam camp

[TamilNet, Saturday, 26 September 2009, 12:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Saturday around 6:00 p.m. opened fire and injured six civilians including two women and three children in Cheddiku'lam internment camp, according to initial reports reaching from Vavuniyaa. One 8-year-old child, seriously wounded in the episode, was transferred to Anuradhapura hospital from Vavuniyaa hospital, medical sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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Another batch of Vavuniyaa IDPs to be detained in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 September 2009, 04:12 GMT]
Around 500 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa brought to Jaffna Thursday were handed over to Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) who took them to Kaarainakar, in the islets of Jaffna to be again detained in camps close to the SLN base. The IDPs are being held in Ma’raignanasampanthar Vithiyaalayam in Kaarainakar while the SLN is constructing new camps in the abandoned civilian settlements to detain them, sources in Jaffna said.
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Transferring IDPs, instead of releasing them, must stop: Anglican Bishop

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 September 2009, 15:22 GMT]
If [IDP] persons said to be released [from the internment camps in Vavuniyaa] are in fact being transferred to camps in different regions, this is misleading and must stop, says Anglican Bishop of Colombo Rev. de Chickera. The Bishop has urged Rajapaksa government to allow media access to areas in the North and provide public updates on the work regarding resettlement of displaced persons.
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Move to make money for 3-wheelers owned by state armed cadres, in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 13:48 GMT]
The office of Vavuniya Ramya House Army Civil Affairs has been shifted from the town to Ee’rataperiyaku’lam with immediate effect, causing inconvenience to the Tamil civilian travelers. The reason for the re-location of the office is mainly to enable the three-wheelers owned by Police, Army and Civil Defence force cadres to earn more money as hire from the Tamil passengers due to the long distance to the shifted office of Ramya House Army Civil Affairs in Ee’ratperiyaku’lam, according to well informed sources in Vavuniyaa.
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Civilians clash with SLA in Vavuniyaa internment camp

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 12:09 GMT]
Additional police and Sri Lanka Army troops were brought into the College of Education internment camp in Vavuniyaa after clashes erupted between civilian inmates and Sri Lankan forces following the arrest and assault of a Tamil youth in the camp. Several civilians and armed personnel sustained minor injuries, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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Political motive behind bringing Vavuniyaa IDPs to the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 04:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has political motives in detaining afresh the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa, in the islets of Jaffna in new camps under the control of Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), so that these IDPs could be made to vote for it in the general election next year, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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“No IDPs but FDDPs, in Vavuniyaa camps” - Mangala Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 03:51 GMT]
“Today barbed wire internment camps are euphemistically called “Welfare Camps” and the 280,000 people incarcerated there are called IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) while in actual fact that these people should be called FDDPs (Forcibly Displaced and Detained Persons)”, Mangala Samaraweera, the leader of the dissident group of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), said.
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Woman swallows cynanide, dies in hospital

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 20:26 GMT]
A Tamil female who swallowed cyanide capsule when a team of police officials from the Galle District Crime Division attempted to arrest her died after being admitted to the hospital in Vavuniyaa on Tuesday early morning.
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SLN constructs new internment camps in the islets of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 05:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) stationed in Kaarainakar, Oorkaavatu’rai and Veala’nai are hastily engaged in constructing new internment camps to detain Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the islets of Jaffna held in Vavuniyaa and brought to the islets. Around 1500 IDPs brought from Vavuniyaa in two stages and handed over to SLN are undergoing untold difficulties being held by the SLN, sources in the islets said.
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SLA refuses permission to Jaffna University students in camps to attend lectures

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 10:15 GMT]
Despite efforts made by Jaffna University Students’ Union (JUSU), University Administration and other interested parties, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) continues to detain 74 university students from Vanni districts held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa and brought to Jaffna, in the SLA detention camp in Kaithadi, a press notice released by the JUSU said. JUSU accused the government for its continued reluctance to allow the detained undergrads to attend university, in the press notice.
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‘From one prison to another’: Sri Lanka’s ‘resettlement’

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 September 2009, 08:31 GMT]
Under international pressure as the monsoon looms, the Sri Lanka government is hastily engaged in relocating some of the displaced Tamils being held in militarised internment camps in Vavuniyaa. However, the inmates are being moved from Vavuniyaa’s barbed-wire ringed camps to similar overcrowded enclosures without facilities in other districts, sources in Jaffna said. Moreover these camps are also located in low-lying terrain in the path of oncoming floods, NGO workers say. “There is no resettlement. This is like being sent from one prison to another prison," Mavai Senathiraja, a parliamentarian from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said.
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No time frame for resettlement of Vanni IDPs - Media Minister

[TamilNet, Friday, 18 September 2009, 04:48 GMT]
The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) Thursday said a time frame for the completion or partial completion of resettlement cannot be given despite the assurance given to the UN chief that 80 percent of the resettlement will be completed by the end of this year, according to Media Minister and cabinet spokesman, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa.
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Lynn Pascoe visits IDP detention camps in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 16:47 GMT]
Mr. Lynn Pascoe, United Nations Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, who was in Jaffna Thursday, visited the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detention camps in Koapaay and Kaithadi, accompanied by Jaffna Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander, Major Gen. Mark and Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh under heavy escort. Non-government organizations in Jaffna expressed concern that independent civil society representatives in the peninsula were not given an opportunity to meet the visiting UN envoy and inform him of the true situation in the peninsula.
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Tamil political prisoners in Colombo on hunger strike

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 16:05 GMT]
Tamil political prisoners arrested on suspicion under Emergency Regulations (ER) and Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), languishing in Magazine Prison and Colombo Remand Prison (CPR) for many years without being produced in the courts, launched a hunger strike from 6:00 a.m Thursday as their requests placed in previous hunger strikes had not been taken into consideration despite promises by legal authorities that their cases will be taken for trial in two months time, sources in Colombo said. The fasting prisoners said the President of Sri Lanka has granted general amnesty to the soldiers who had deserted their posts during the war, in the past few months and hence it would be an easy matter for the President to use his executive powers at least to order to take up our cases immediately for trial as we had only been arrested on suspicion.
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3 Tamil youths arrested in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 10:32 GMT]
Special Task Force (STF) commandos arrested Wednesday morning three Tamil youths in a search conducted in Cheddiku'lam in Vavuniyaa district, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Many persons in the area were subjected to interrogation and checking during the search. The arrested youths are detained in Vavuniyaa police station.
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Body of Tamil woman recovered in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 2009, 10:20 GMT]
Vavuniyaa police recovered the decomposed body of an eighteen-year-old Tamil married woman from a closed shop located along 10th Lane in Vairavapu’liyangku’lam in Vavuniyaa. A Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp is located in front of the shop where building materials are sold, sources in Vavuniyaa said. Police had been notified by the public that an offensive smell was emanating from the said shop and they had to break in to recover the body.
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