Details emerge on Tamil media workers killed in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 August 2009, 00:52 GMT]
TamilNet recently compiled details on Tamil journalists and media workers confirmed killed during the height of war in Vanni, between March and May. The list is not exhaustive. These media persons, committed to the human cause and engaged in the noble task of bringing out information to the people inside and to the world outside, have laid down their lives in achieving what the international media shamefully couldn't accomplish. TamilNet will be serialising compilations on the losses of other humanitarian workers too in due course.
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130 IDPs in Vavuniyaa camps to be resettled in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 19:05 GMT]
One hundred and thirty Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa are to brought to Jaffna Wednesday to be resettled in places in Jaffna that are out of SLA High Security Zones (HSZ) and in Vadamaraadchi East except Maruthangkea’ni Assistant Government Agent (AGA) division, Jaffna Government Agent (GA), K. Ganesh, informed in a press meet held in Jaffna Secretariat Tuesday. The GA also told the media that he has nothing to do with the forms distributed by persons in Jaffna to apply for resettlement in Jaffna.
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TNA outlines political formula

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 13:13 GMT]
Based on Self-Determination, distinct and comprehensive autonomy to the historical homeland of Eelam Tamils is the political solution envisaged by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to the ethnic conflict in the island of Sri Lanka, said veteran Tamil politician and TNA Parilamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan, while addressing the press in Jaffna Tuesday. Mr. Sampanthan, who said that a draft proposal of the TNA will be released soon, was optimistic of India's support. This is the first time the TNA is coming out with its own political formula to resolve the ethnic conflict.
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15-25 births daily in Vavuniyaa ‘internment camps’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 05:31 GMT]
More than 2,500 pregnant mothers are detained in Vavuniyaa camps along with hundreds of thousands of Vanni displaced civilians. Around fifteen to twenty five births take place each day. 350 births had taken place in the Vavuniyaa general hospital last month, July, according to a survey conducted by the health authorities in collaboration with the WHO and the UNICEF.
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TNA candidates, supporters attacked by government party men in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 05:26 GMT]
A group of supporters led by the leader of a government party contesting the election in the Vavuniyaa Urban Council attacked two candidates of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and their supporters while they were engaged in electioneering at Kuruma'nve’li area in Vavuniyaa Monday evening in two separate incidents, according to complaints lodged with Vavuniyaa Police and the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV).
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Reporters barred from Jaffna, Vavuniyaa during elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2009, 01:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka will not allow reporters into Vavuniyaa and Jaffna to cover the local government elections to be held there on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. “The government did not give a reason for banning reporters, but it cites security reasons for denying entry to any outsider,” AP reported. The towns are accessible with Defence ministry permission and “even residents can't leave without permission,” AP report said. Meanwhile, an elections watchdog, PAFFREL (People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections) said there seemed to be little public interest in the polls as people were preoccupied with the plight of their relatives in government’s military-run internment camps.
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Indians need three years to clear mines

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 August 2009, 11:36 GMT]
It will take one-and-a-half to two years to do away with most land mines and another year to declare the areas safe for habitation, reported Times of India, Sunday, citing Indian Army’s retired Major General Prem K. Puri who is heading one of the Indian outfits engaged in de-mining the North and East. Meanwhile, 82 more former Indian soldiers have gone to Sri Lanka last week to join the hundreds or perhaps thousands already operating under the care of Colombo’s National Steering Committee. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s insistence on ‘de-mining first’ to free civilians from the concentration camps and India sitting on international intervention raise serious concern in Tamil circles, how long both the Establishments are going to continue the ‘human shield’ in fulfilling their agenda.
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Measles outbreak fear in Vavuniyaa ‘internment camps’

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 August 2009, 05:02 GMT]
More than 36,000 internally displaced (IDP) children under five years of age, held in internment camps in Vavuniyaa are to be vaccinated against measles under a special child health campaign to counter the sporadic cases of measles which have occurred in the past months and prevent risk of further outbreak, UNICEF sources said.
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IRC goods for IDPs yet to be given Colombo port clearance - SLRCS

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 18:13 GMT]
Twenty seven containers of goods sent by the Indian Red Cross (IRC) for the internally displaced Vanni people detained in camps in Vavuniyaa continue to lie in Colombo port since 9 July and are yet to be given clearance, as documents have not been received for clearance from the Indian Red Cross, Director General of Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS), Suren Peris said Saturday.
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Bus service via A9 route from Jaffna to begin Sunday

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 August 2009, 17:27 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA), K. Ganesh informed media Saturday that 200 passengers from Jaffna will be taken to Madawachi every other day. Persons travelling should obtain the ‘travel pass’ from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and they will be allowed to return to Jaffna only by producing a copy of the travel pass to the SLA in Vavuniyaa, according to GA’s announcement.
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Ki'linochchi GA arrested under PTA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2009, 20:42 GMT]
Ki'linochchi District Government Agent, Nagalingam Vethanayagam was abducted Thursday night by a group of persons who arrived in a vehicle at his temporary residence in Vavuniyaa. On Friday, the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) informed Mr. Vethanayagam's family that he has been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and that he has been taken to Colombo for further inquiries.
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Poonthoaddam residents complain of stench from cemetary

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2009, 19:13 GMT]
Foul smell from Vavuniyaa-Poonthooddam general cemetery due to improper mass burial of dead from Sri Lanka miltary supervised Vanni internment camps which hold more than 300,000 Tamil civilians is posing health hazard to the village residents, civil society sources in Vavuniyaa said. Corpses are buried en masse in graves, and routinely, bodies of recently dead are placed over partly decomposed bodies buried earlier.
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Commencement of bus service via A9 route from Jaffna doubtful

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2009, 08:45 GMT]
Government announced that transport service for public between Jaffna and Colombo will commence from 1 August but the officials of Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) in Jaffna who have to provide the buses said that they had not received any instructions from their superiors in Colombo. The five buses which took 210 passengers from Jaffna on 22 July in an event inaugurated by Basil Rajapakse, the brother and advisor of President Mahinda Rajapakse are being held back in Jaffna by Sri Lanka Army (SLA), they further said.
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31 percent voters of Jaffna Municipal Council limit displaced

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2009, 03:18 GMT]
11.6 percent of the voters eligible to cast their votes in the elections to the Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) are detained in several camps for internally displaced in Jaffna district, and 20.9 percent IDPs are living elsewhere out of the district in several parts of Sri Lanka. About 71.8 percent are currently living within the JMC limit, according to a survey conducted by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA). The election to the JMC is scheduled to be held on August 8 along with Vavuniyaa Urban Council.
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Increase of typhoid, hepatitis reported in internment camps

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 July 2009, 16:56 GMT]
An increase of Typhoid fever and viral Hepatitis has been reported in the internment camps of Vavuniyaa where hundreds of thousands of Vanni civilians in Sri Lanka Army custody are being detained against their wish, health authorities in Vavuniyaa said. Meanwhile, local NGO workers complained that doctors from South who do not converse in Tamil have been deployed inside the internment camps, creating a difficult situation for the Tamil people to communicate using their language.
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3 TNA candidates in Vavuniyaa polls receive death threats - CMEV

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 July 2009, 11:56 GMT]
The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said Wednesday that it received complaints that three candidates of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) contesting the election to the Vavuniyaa urban Council have been issued with death threats.
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Free civilians from detention camps, HRW tells Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 July 2009, 11:49 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government should immediately release the more than 280,000 internally displaced Tamil civilians held in detention camps, Ney York-based rights group, Human Rights Watch (HRW), again demanded Wednesday. “The government has effectively sealed off the detention camps from outside scrutiny. Human rights organizations, journalists, and other independent observers are not allowed inside,” HRW said. Condemning the mass detention as “outrageous”, HRW cited comments by Walter Kälin, the UN secretary-general’s representative on internally displaced persons, that: “Prolonged internment of such persons would not only amount to arbitrary detention but it also aggravates the humanitarian situation needlessly.”
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Attend to Vanni IDPs’ problems first – Jaffna University Students Union

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 17:10 GMT]
“We strongly criticize the Tamil politicians who seek votes without attending to the problems faced by the Vanni people held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa,” Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) said in a press release Tuesday in Jaffna. “We are deeply dissatisfied with some Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians who do not attend to the immediate problems of the Vanni IDPs,” JUSU said in its press release.
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Sri Lankan port yet to clear Mercy Mission supplies

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 11:09 GMT]
Sri Lankan port authorities in Colombo are refusing to hand over the humanitarian supplies of Tamil diaspora Mercy Mission, stating that the Indian authorities are yet to produce necessary documents including the Bill of Lading, Sri Lankan Red Cross officials in Colombo said. Meanwhile, customs authorities in Colombo said though the government has waved off the import duty, the Sri Lankan Red Cross has to pay demurrage for harbouring the cargo in the port.
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SL Appeal Court fixes order in MPs’ petition to visit internment camps

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2009, 16:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal Monday fixed the order for August 24 in a petition filed by leading opposition parliamentarians seeking the court to order the authorities concerned to allow them to visit camps located in Vavuniyaa where hundreds of thousands of Vanni internally displaced people are detained by the Sri Lankan military.
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