TNA accuses government of using state resources in JMC election campaign

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2009, 16:36 GMT]
Ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) conducted Sunday a large scale procession of vehicles organized by Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) in Jaffna town in which more than a thousand supporters participated, canvassing people to vote for the Betel symbol of UPFA, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which has also entered into the fray, accused UPFA and its ally EPDP of using government vehicles for election campaign. TNA also accused the police for being partial to UPFA in carrying out duties related to Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, the sources added.
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173 detained students in Vavuniyaa camps qualified to enter university

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2009, 16:34 GMT]
One hundred and seventy three students currently being detained in camps described as internment camps in Vavuniyaa, are qualified to enter the Vavuniyaa campus of the Jaffna University for the forthcoming academic year.
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New SLA Commander meets North-East commanders in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 July 2009, 02:34 GMT]
The newly appointed Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, met all the Security Forces Commanders of Jaffna, Vanni, Mullaitheivu, Killinochchi, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampaarai and other senior Field Commanders in the North and East, for the first time after his assumption of duties, at the Vanni Security Forces headquarters located in Vavuniyaa Saturday. During the conference special attention was drawn to the security situation in different regions in the North and East, media reports said.
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Political struggle will continue until Tamil aspirations are met -Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 July 2009, 18:43 GMT]
"Tamil militancy was a part of the political struggle of the Tamil people to achieve the right to self-determination in the traditional homeland of the Tamil people in the northeast. The Sri Lanka government says that the armed struggle has been completely defeated. But the political struggle of Tamil people would go on till the legitimate political aspirations of the Tamil people are achieved," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group, addressing a meeting in Vavuniyaa Saturday in support of the TNA candidates contesting the elections to the Vavuniyaa Urban Council under the banner Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK).
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Supreme Court calls for AG’s report

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 July 2009, 12:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Friday directed the Attorney General to report on August 6 the position of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) about releasing internally displaced families from Vanni region now being detained in several camps in Vavuniyaa to ensure their right to live anywhere according to their wish. “It is unjust to detain IDPs in camps contrary to their wish,” the Supreme Court pointed out to the Deputy Solicitor General when it took up a Fundamental Rights petition filed by a relative on behalf of a four member family now being illegally detained in Veerapuram centre of the Vavuniyaa Kovil Kulam main camp for inquiry Friday. These camps are described by human rights organizations and activists as ‘internment camps’.
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Postal voting in Jaffna, Vavuniya local elections on July 27, 28

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 July 2009, 14:44 GMT]
Postal voting in the forthcoming elections to Jaffna Municipal Council and Vavuniyaa Urban Council is to take place on July 27 and 28. 183 government servants are qualified to cast their votes in Vavuniyaa Urban Council and 335 out of 473 are qualified for postal voting in Jaffna Municipal Council, election department sources said.
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Vanni IDP family files FR seeking release from “internment camp”

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 July 2009, 07:35 GMT]
A Fundamental Rights violation petition has been filed in Sri Lanka Supreme Court Thursday seeking the release of a four-member family displaced from Vanni and currently being detained in one of the several camps in Vavuniyaa and to order two million rupees as compensation for illegal detention. Seventy-year-old Kanapathipillai Ehambaram of Naachchikudaa filed the FR petition on behalf of her daughter, son-in-law, and two grand daughters now being detained in a camp located in Vavuniyaa Koayil Ku'lam, legal sources said.
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Depression setting among Vanni IDPs in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 July 2009, 04:30 GMT]
Number of people suffering from some form of depression in the centres which are described by human rights organizations and activists as ‘internment camps’ is on the increase, Colombo media reported quoting a medical officer working in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) centres. The medical officer did not want to be named.
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Dengue detected among IDPs in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 July 2009, 10:09 GMT]
For the first time seven persons were admitted to Vavuniyaa general hospital Tuesday on a single day suffering from Dengue fever, according to hospital sources. Six of the thirteen patients admitted to Vavuniyaa Hospital on that day had also been detected suffering from Japanese Encephalitis. The dengue patients are said to be inmates from Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps located in Vavuniyaa. These IDP camps where hundreds of thousands of Vanni displaced persons are held are described as internment camps by human rights organizations and activists.
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Vavuniyaa hospital security tightened

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 July 2009, 17:15 GMT]
The deployment of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers at Vavuniyaa general hospital has been suddenly stepped up from Monday. SLA soldiers and police personnel are seen in every nook and corner of the hospital monitoring movement of each individual, civil sources say. All the entry and exit points of the hospital have been placed under the strict surveillance of the Sri Lankan forces.
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Court directs SLA Vanni commander to admit IDP girl to hospital

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 July 2009, 09:16 GMT]
The Supreme Court Monday directed the Commander of the Sri Lanka armed Forces Headquarters, Vanni to take steps to admit the 13-year-old child Sopika Surendranathan immediately to Anuradhapura General Hospital for medical treatment. The Bench comprising Justices Shiranee A. Bandaranaike, Saleem Marsuf and Jagath Balapatebendi made this order, subsequent to the submissions made by the Counsel for Sopika who is presently housed in the IDP camp.
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Government yet to decide on 13 plus political solution – Minister Alagaperuma

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 July 2009, 16:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Transport Minister, Dallas Alagaperuma, said Monday in a press meet in Jaffna that no final decision has been made by the government on the proposed 13 plus political solution to the ethnic issue, correcting Minister Douglas Devananda, who told the reporters that President Mahinda Rajapakse and the cabinet have accepted the 13 plus political solution. The press meet took place in the newly opened Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) office in Chu’ndukkuzhi in Jaffna to which more than a hundred media persons were brought from the South. Ministers Dallas Algaperuma, Douglas Devananda and Srisena Cooray were some of the political leaders present in the meeting.
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Air of martial triumph unbefitting while controversy surrounds Tamil civilian deaths - NY Times

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2009, 16:07 GMT]
Noting that "[t]he Tamil minority has suffered discrimination and violence at the hands of various Sinhalese-dominated governments through the decades. Tamils have sought, first peacefully, then violently, the right to a measure of self-rule in Tamil-dominated areas," the New York Times in a Sunday article said, "[m]any Sri Lankans see these soldiers as heroes, but given the controversy that remains over how many Tamil civilians were killed in the last weeks of the fighting, some people find the air of martial triumph unseemly."
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Awakening North, an election gimmick? - Sunday Leader

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2009, 11:37 GMT]
Noting that the loan scheme announced by the Sri Lanka Government to Northern small scale enterprises while soliciting donations for the diaspora for refugee relief, exposed the scarcity of funds to support Jaffna loans, an article in Sunday Leader, said that the loan announcement is likely an election ploy to woo Jaffna voters towards the ruling UPFA. Questioning the motives for recent actions by the Central Bank in not revealing the details of IMF Article IV consultation report, and suspending publication of weekly economic indicators, the article said the reluctance of the Government to set free the screened IDPs in the internment camps is likely driven by the need to mobilize "humanitarian aid from the donors and donations from the diaspora to bolster the foreign currency reserves of the government."
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Disease outbreak keeps UN staff away from Vavuniyaa hospital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2009, 02:14 GMT]
Vavuniya-based United Nations staff providing relief services to the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) has been advised to keep away from the Vavuniya General Hospital due to an outbreak of meningitis and encephalitis, health officials in Vavuniyaa said. The UN warning to staff came amidst reports that hospital employees at Vavuniya had failed to inform authorities of the outbreak, the Sunday Times reported. Dr. Hemantha Herath, Health Coordinator of the IDP camps, told the newspaper, “It is only now that we are getting a regular feedback from the hospital. They have not done in-depth investigations into these cases.”
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United Sri Lanka is the steadfast aim of UNP – Tissa Athanayake, in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 July 2009, 10:32 GMT]
General Secretary of United National Party (UNP), the main opposition party, Tissa Athanayake, said that the UNP believes in one country with equal rights to all its people, in a press meet held Thursday in Jaffna City Hotel. Tissa Athanayake, accompanied by Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene, UNP parliamentarian and UNP principal candidate in Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, A. S. Sathiyendra, explained the policy of his party to the media. “One of the main functions of the ICRC is family reunion of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Rajapakse’s government’s decision to stop ICRC’s functions and to expel it from the country needs to be vehemently condemned,” Dr. Jayalath Jayawardne said.
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10 IDPs die daily inside barbed wire camps in Vavuniyaa - JVP

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 July 2009, 03:53 GMT]
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) said Wednesday it has been receiving reports that due to scarcity of essential needs such as food, water and medicine, on the average, ten internally displaced people die every day inside the camps located in Vavuniyaa. "These people too are citizens of Sri Lanka. Those who are languishing inside the barbed wire camps are our fellow citizens. We call upon the Government not to forget the fact that they tjere arrived on the invitation of the government. It is disgusting to hear of the way the government treats them now,” said JVP leader Mr.Somawanse Amarasinghe addressing a press briefing Wednesday at the JVP head office in Battaramulla.
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Imprisonment of aid workers violates international law: UN Staff Union

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 July 2009, 20:15 GMT]
The Staff Union of the United Nations Secretariat (SUUNS) slammed the Sri Lankan Government for its illegal detainment of two aid workers and urged Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to demand for their release in a statement released Friday. Highlighting Sri Lankas responsibility “under international law to respect independence and work of UN Staff”, the statement labeled the “continuing detention and harassment” of UN staff as a violation of the “international instruments dealing with the privileges, immunities and independence of United Nations officials”.
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Mahanayake announces programme to renovate “destroyed” Buddhist sites in NE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 08:28 GMT]
Malwatte Mahanayake Thera Venerable Tibbotuwawe Siddhartha Sri Sumagalabhidana Thera Sunday announced that a programme is to be launched shortly in the North and East to renovate Buddhist religious sites, according to him, destroyed or damaged during the war.
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Colombo doctors to investigate outbreak of meningitis, encephalitis in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 July 2009, 17:29 GMT]
Six medical officers from Colombo are scheduled to visit IDP camps which are described as internment camps by human rights agencies in Vavuniya tomorrow to investigate a suspected outbreak of meningitis and encephalitis, reported from the Vavuniyaa General Hospital. Meanwhile the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) has charged that a severe shortage of nurses and pharmacists in the Vavuniyaa camps is compounding health problems there.
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