Notorious commander appointed Governor of Northern Province

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 July 2009, 17:05 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasiri as the new Governor of the Northern Province. Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri was the former chief of the SLA in Jaffna, under whose command Jaffna witnessed hundreds of forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations in the period from 2006 to 2008. Tamil political circles in Colombo commented that Mr. Rajpaksa, who claims to have crushed the de-facto state of Tamil Eelam, has appointed his military men in key posts in the occupied Tamil homeland to head civil services with a 'colonial mindset'. Earlier, in April, Rajapaksa appointed Chandrasiri as the Competent Authority Officer in charge of resettlement of Tamils from Vanni in alleged barbed-wire 'internment camps' in Vavuniyaa.
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AG to file response to FR petition on “internment “camps

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 July 2009, 22:01 GMT]
Three member Bench of the Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Friday directed the Attorney General (AG) to file objections within two weeks in respect of granting leave to proceed, and interim relief to the Petitioners, in a Fundament Rights (FR) Violation petition against the detention of nearly three hundred thousand Vanni IDPs in State controlled "welfare centres" which have been described by human rights activists and organizations as "internment camps," legal sources in Colombo said.
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Vanni doctors forced to give false statement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 July 2009, 17:36 GMT]
5 Tamil doctors being held by the Sri Lankan authorities say they expect to be released, after being paraded to local and international media on Wednesday when they were made to claim that they had exaggerated civilian casualty figures in the final phases of the war at the request of the LTTE. Meanwhile, health workers who have escaped Vanni have slammed the international community for allowing the detainment of the doctors and questioned the validity of their statements in light of the 'precarious position' they face.
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SL parliament extends Emergency for another month

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 July 2009, 04:40 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s parliament Tuesday adopted a motion to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of ninety two votes. One hundred and three parliamentarians voted for the motion. Only eleven members of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) voted against. The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and National Freedom Front (NFF), a splinter group of the JVP voted with ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA).
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Railways Dept rules out sabotage in Yarl Devi fire

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 July 2009, 03:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Railways ruled out sabotage but said it has sustained damages in the region of 25 million rupees due to the fire that broke out Sunday morning in Thaandiku'lam bound Colombo Yarl Devi intercity express train. The fire destroyed two wagons including the canteen.
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Time for diaspora to stand up for homeland Tamils: Father S.J. Emmanuel

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 July 2009, 14:44 GMT]
Former Vicar General of the Catholic diocese of Jaffna, Rev. Dr. S.J. Emmanuel, in an open appeal issued from Germany on Monday urged the diaspora Tamils to hasten to help the Tamils suffering in the island Sri Lanka. "Neither the Tamils who are suffering in silence have the strength to stand up or speak up for themselves nor the few Sinhalese are able to give their voice for the Tamils because these are quickly labelled as non-patriots, if not, traitors. The only people who can help them in some way or other are the Diaspora Tamils," he writes in his first part of the article. The second part will deal with the need to unite and organise the diaspora for further Struggle.
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34 Vanni IDPs die in 3 months due to brain fever

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 July 2009, 11:48 GMT]
Brain fever has been on the increase among Vanni Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) held in internment centres located in Vavuniyaa, according to medical sources in the district hospital. Thirty-four Vanni IDPs of the sixty-four afflicted by brain fever have died in three months. Majority of them who succumbed to brain fever were less than 24 years of age, medical sources said.
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Armed men rob elderly IDP in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 July 2009, 05:41 GMT]
Unidentified armed men arriving on a motor bicycle robbed several thousand rupees worth gold jewellery from an elderly Internally Displaced Person (IDP) who was released from a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camp in Vavuniyaa and staying with his relatives at Veappangku’lam in Vavuniyaa on the pretext of searching his house. The robbery took place Saturday evening when the elderly IDP came to stay with his relative, media reports said.
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Limited passenger bus service via A9 highway

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 July 2009, 10:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka Defence Ministry is to allow passenger bus service thrice a week via A-9 highway between Vavuniyaa and Jaffna. Five buses would be allowed each day at the start, media reported quoting Defence Ministry sources said. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka armed forced sources said clearing of landmines along A9 highway is nearing completion.
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Fire in Yarl Devi train bound for Thaandiku’lam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 July 2009, 09:50 GMT]
A fire broke out onboard Yarl Devi inter-city train bound to Thaandiku'lam in Vavuniyaa district Sunday morning around 10.30 a.m on its way from Anuradhapura to Saliyapura. The blaze damaged at least two compartments of the train including the canteen, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
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School principal shot dead in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 July 2009, 12:18 GMT]
Unknown armed men shot and killed the principal of Parathipuram Tamil Mixed School and another man while the victims were travelling in a motorbike at Parathipuram in Vavuniyaa Saturday around 3:00 p.m., Police said.
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5000 Vanni IDPs from internment camps moved to Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 July 2009, 13:23 GMT]
The Sri Lankan military has relocated nearly 5000 Tamil civilians from Vavuniyaa and Cheddiku'lam internment camps and resetteld them in pre dominant Sinhala village Tharmapuram in Anuradhapu on Tuesday and Wednesday, civil sources said. The SL military officials had told the Tamil civilians that they would be re-settled in their native villages in Ki'linochchi or Mullaiththeevu within 14 days, but the Rajapaksa government, at an all party meeting in Colombo on Thursday, said that it needed time to clear the mines before any resettlement.
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Vavuniyaa-Horowopottana road re-opened for public transport

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 July 2009, 03:39 GMT]
The highway between Vavuniyaa and Horowopottana has been re-opened for public transport after several years of closure. Vavuniyaa Government Agent Ms. P. M. Charles said the route is now open for public transport including state and private sector bus services with effect from Wednesday, according to media sources.
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Kohona: ‘Victorious soldiers could have raped every single woman’

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 July 2009, 02:20 GMT]
Sri Lankan government officials are running a prostitution racket using Tamil women interned in at least one of the militarised camps for displaced people, The Australian newspaper reported Thursday. "It's been brought to the attention of senior government officials but no one seems to be doing anything about it," an aid worker, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, told the paper. In response to the accusations, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Palitha Kohona told the paper: "These (the military) are the guys who were winning the war - they could have raped every single woman on the way if they wanted to. Not one single woman was raped."
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3 Tamil civilians arrested in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 July 2009, 09:27 GMT]
Sri Lanka Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID) in Colombo took into custody Wednesday three Tamil civilians staying in a lodge located in Kotahena, sources in Colombo said. The arrested civilians are suspected to be escaped detainees from one of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa, the sources added.
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IDPs living on Jaffna railway track area evicted

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 16:49 GMT]
Families of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living on Sri Lanka government railway properties since they were evicted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) twenty years ago from their residences in Valikaamam North, were forced to leave Tuesday to leave their temporary shelters in railway crossings, stations and officers’ quarters as the dead line to quit being 30 June, sources in Jaffna said. The government officials and SLA officers who were very keen to evict the families had not provided any alternate place for them to move in, the families complained.
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SL military shoots dead 2 detainees in Vavuniyaa internment camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 13:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka military personnel opened fire Sunday morning on detainees in an attempt to stop them making way through the barbed wire fence separating Ramanathan camp and Anandakumarasamy camp located in Cheddikulam, killing two of them and injuring more than two, in a confrontation that developed Sunday morning, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The killers had taken the two bodies away and their identities are not available at the moment, the sources added.
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Galle / Kaali

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 03:03 GMT]
The rocks
The rocky place
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120 IDP girls handed over to children home in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 June 2009, 15:58 GMT]
One hundred and twenty nine Internally Displaced girls have been handed over to Arulaham Children Home run by Vavuniyaa Sivan Koayil management on the orders of Vavuniyaa District Court from one of several camps described by humanitarian agencies as “internment camps” located in Vavuniyaa. These children will be under the direct supervision of the Department of Probation and Child Care, according to the court order.
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Vavuniyaa Tamil Christian teacher reported missing in Colombo

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 June 2009, 17:20 GMT]
A Christian teacher, Rasalingam Naguleswaran, father of two children, has been reported missing since 6 June afternoon after he boarded a bus bound for Vavuniyaa from Gunasinghapura bus halt in Colombo, according to complaints made by his wife Geethanjali with the Vavuniyaa police, Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC).
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