SLA massacred civilians in bunkers - medical worker

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 September 2009, 08:57 GMT]
The advancing Sri Lanka Army massacred civilians by paving their bunkers with tanks, by throwing explosives inside the bunkers and by shooting the injured, says a medical worker who came out of Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal during the last days of the war, became incarcerated in a camp and now escaped the island. "Around a hundred thousand captured civilians herded to Mullaiththeevu were kept in rows within barbed wires, most of the time without water or food under the hot sun, and were bullied and ill treated with arrogance," he writes in a lengthy note that reached TamilNet this week. The note in Tamil was provided by the Norwegian Tamils Health Organisation (NTHO), urging TamilNet not to reveal the identity of the health worker for reasons of his security.
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1034 unaccompanied children in Vavuniyaa camps - NCPA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 16:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) said Saturday that there are 1034 unaccompanied children in the camps where internally displaced people are held in Vavuniyaa. “Of the 1034 children 250 were handed over to close relatives while the guardianship of 300 children is yet to be determined. Another 300 were handed over to three orphanages - two in Vavuniyaa and the other in Mannaar,” Mr. Jagath Wellawatte, NCPA Chairman, said.
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Monthly 400 births in Vavuniyaa Menik IDP camp

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 September 2009, 08:04 GMT]
Four hundred babies are born every month in the internment camps at Menik Farm where nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians are held in Vavuniya district, and they are in need of considerable assistance and care, according to Sarvodaya leader Dr A. T. Ariyaretna. He presented the statistics when he was making a commemorative address in honour of Mother Theresa of Calcutta, at the SEDEC centre, Colombo Saturday.
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7 govt. officers with their families released from Pulmoaddai camp

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 September 2009, 14:37 GMT]
Two more government officers who were working in Mullaiththeevu district during the war and later detained in Pulmoaddai internment camp in Trincomalee district were handed over to the Mullaiththeevu Government Agent Wednesday by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authority. They are Mrs. M. G. Vilvarajah, District Director of Planning in Mullaiththeevu and Mr. V. S. Theivendran, Mullaiththeevu Zonal Director of Education. Earlier, five staff officers, including Mr. K. Parthipan, Mullaitheivu Additional Government Agent, with their families, were released.
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Only 93 elders allowed to leave Vavuniyaa camp

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 September 2009, 08:40 GMT]
Only ninety-three elders were allowed to leave the ‘internment camps’ in Vavuniyaa Wednesday despite earlier announcement that five hundred elders would be allowed to leave. Of the ninety-three, forty-six elders were handed over to the All Ceylon Hindu Congress (ACHC) and the rest to the elders’ home run by the Vavuniyaa-Koayil Ku’lam Sivan Koayil.
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5th Vanni doctor released on surety bail

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 September 2009, 17:15 GMT]
Dr. Kanagathurai Sivapalan who was serving in Puththukuddiruppu hospital in the Vanni region during the final assault on the LTTE by Sri Lanka Army was released on surety bail of a sum of 200,000 rupees by Colombo Chief Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi Tuesday. He was the last in the batch of five doctors arrested from the internment camps in Vavuniyaa after they fled from the battle ground.
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Sri Lanka's cynical technique of rebuttal - Aussie Don

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 September 2009, 04:24 GMT]
Commenting on the recently exposed execution video, Professor Jake Lynch, Director, Centre for Peace and Conflict at Sydney University writes: "the Sri Lankan authorities assiduously kept journalists from international media away from the conflict zone, having, in the previous few years, terrorised local editors and reporters with arbitrary arrests, imprisonment and beatings, while many were mysteriously killed amid persistent rumours of official complicity. Now, the same authorities who have treated journalism with such contempt are seeking to keep information in the realm of contestability, through the cynical technique of rebuttal."
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Sentence to Tissainayagam extra-judicial: HR lawyer

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 August 2009, 23:42 GMT]
The sentence of 20-year rigorous imprisonment to J.S. Tissanayagam on Monday mark a sad day for journalists and those who believe in the ’freedom of expression’ all over the world, says Deputy Chairperson of Northeast Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), K Sivapalan, an Atterney-at-Law from Trincomalee, in whose opinion this is an extra-judicial way to punish people. ”The provisions of the PTA are not in conformity with the International Criminal Law especially the ’confession’ being admitted in evidence agaist the accused and with regard to the burden of proof.UNHRC requested the GoSL to repeal or amend many of the provisions which were not in conformity. However this was not followed by them on the basis that it was an erosion of the sovereignty of Sri Lanka,” Mr. Sivapalan, now exiled in Norway, said.
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Vanni IDPs in camps seek HRCSL help to locate missing relative

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 August 2009, 14:09 GMT]
Vavuniyaa regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) receives twenty-five to thirty written complaints daily by post from internally displaced inmates held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa, according to an HRCSL official. The official further said IDPs held in camps or members of public who are expecting the services of his institution regarding locating missing relatives in the final stages of the war could write to HRCSL office located along Railway Station Road in Vavuniyaa or by telephone. The telephone number is 024-2222029.
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Liam Fox meets Mahinda Rajapakse, Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 August 2009, 11:35 GMT]
The government of United Kingdom (UK) is seriously involved in finding a political solution to the legitimate aspirations of Tamils in Sri Lanka and the early resettlement of the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced as well as ensuring a better future for them, Mr. Liam Fox, British Conservative Party parliamentarian, is reported to have told President Mahinda Rajapakse when he met the latter on Saturday.
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Colombo suspends releasing Trinco internees from Menik farm

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 15:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka authorities, without prior notice and without citing any reason, have suspended Saturday, a planned release of a group of 600 persons out of about 3,000 internally displaced persons who are residents of Trincomalee district and fled from Vanni and currently being interned in military supervised Menik Farm in Vavuniyaa to their own villages, civil sources in Vavuniyaa told media. More than 300,000 Tamil civilians are currently being held in the internment camps in Vavuniyaa.
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IDPs from the islets of Jaffna allowed to resettle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 06:20 GMT]
The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Veala’nai, Allaippiddi and Ma’nkumpaan in the islets of Jaffna displaced due to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensives in 2006 and presently staying in Jaffna town had to wait for a long time at Duraippah Stadium Thursday as Basil Rajapakse, Senior Advisor to the President, failed to turn up as scheduled to participate in the event of resettling the IDPs in their own villages, sources in Jaffna said. Local government officials later sent the IDPs to their villages in buses.
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British Conservative party MP Liam Fox visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 05:44 GMT]
Liam Fox, British Conservative Party shadow Defence Secretary accompanied by his advisor W. Adams, visited Jaffna Friday where he met the representatives of civil and religious societies at Jaffna Bishop House around 2:15 p.m. “A just political solution to Tamils’ problems should be the first concern and not development,” the representatives told the visiting emissary, sources in Jaffna said. Liam Fox later met Jaffna Government Agent, K. Ganesh at Jaffna Secretariat. The representative who met Liam Fox said that he showed a keen interest in finding out the true situation of the Tamils, the sources added.
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Tamil youth shot, injured identified as an IDP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 August 2009, 04:44 GMT]
The Tamil civilian shot and injured on Wednesday night in Ka’luwaangkear’ni in Batticaloa district has been identified as 27-year-old Nadarajah Baskaran who returned from Vavuniyaa internment camp for resettlement in his native village.
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Civil officers’ quarters in Vavuniyaa attacked

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 August 2009, 15:08 GMT]
Unidentified persons attacked official quarters of several government and NGO officers located in Vavuniyaa Wednesday around 11:00 p.m. They threw stones at these official residences, according to complaints lodged with Vavuniyaa Police immediately after the attack.
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Canadian Tamils demonstrate against China’s support to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 August 2009, 11:27 GMT]
Several hundred Canadian Tamils gathered outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto, Wednesday, August 26, 2009 to protest against China’s financial, economic, and diplomatic support of the Sri Lankan government. Many Tamils attending the protest have their relatives or friends in the Sri Lanka military supervised internment camps in Vavuniyaa where more than 300,000 Tamil civilians.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 August 2009, 10:31 GMT]
A Tamil civilian from Ukku’laangkulam in Vavuniyaa is reported missing since Tuesday after having left home on his motorbike to obtain a pass to travel to Jaffna from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Public Relation Office located in Vavuniyaa town, according to complaints lodged by his wife Sellamahal Gowrishankar to Human Rights Commission (HRC) Vavuniyaa office and the police.
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Camp children at risk of sexual abuse, trafficking - NGO

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 August 2009, 00:38 GMT]
Noting the specific risks faced by children amongst the hundreds of thousands of people confined in Sri Lanka’s militarized concentration camps, ChildFund Australia on Wednesday launched a fundraising appeal to protect the youngsters. "Children who have been orphaned or separated from their families are particularly vulnerable, facing an increased risk of malnutrition, disease, sexual exploitation, abduction and trafficking," ChildFund Australia CEO Nigel Spence said. The money raised by ChildFund Australia's Sri Lanka appeal will be used, among other things, to provide children with “survival skills”, the NGO said: “Children will be taught survival and safety skills to help protect themselves from sexual abuse, violence and life-threatening diseases.”
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600 Hindu, Catholic priests allowed to leave internment camps in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 August 2009, 16:04 GMT]
Government of Sri Lanka Wednesday freed around 600 Hindu and Catholic priests who were held in internment camps in Vavuniyaa. They had fled Vanni when Sri Lanka Army launched its military operation against LTTE in Vanni region. A total of 571 Hindu priests, six Catholic priests and two nuns were allowed out while 220 nuns are still held in the camps.
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Opposition MPs denied access to Vavuniyaa IDP camps due to political motives

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 August 2009, 11:45 GMT]
“Government denies permission to opposition parliamentarians to visit the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Vavuniyaaa IDP camps as it intends to forcibly get their 175,000 votes in the future Presidential and Parliamentary elections,” members of Human Rights Committee of Sri Lanka opposition parliamentarians said in a press conference held Wednesday morning in Colombo. “Our committee will complain against the government on this issue to the International Committee of Parliamentarians,” they further said.
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