57,293 children held in Vavuniyaa SLA internment camps

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 June 2009, 17:46 GMT]
57,293 children from Vanni are presently detained in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa, U. L. M. Haldeen, Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Relief said to the media.
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22 elderly IDPs die in Cheddikul’am internment camp

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 June 2009, 17:29 GMT]
Twenty-two elderly internally displaced persons from Vanni detained in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps in Vavuniyaa and Cheddikul'am died in two days. Fourteen died on Sunday and eight on Monday and all those dead were above seventy years of age, medical sources said.
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Elderly IDPs to be released from Cheddikul’am camp

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 June 2009, 17:09 GMT]
Six hundred fifty three elderly Vanni internally displaced persons held in Cheddikul’am Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camp in Vavuniyaa are to be released amid reports of rise of death of elderly IDPs detained in the camps in Vavuniyaa. Lists of names of elderly IDPs to be released are now displayed in Vavuniyaa District Secretariat and Cheddikul’am detention centre, media reports said.
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Health conditions among Vanni detainees deteriorate

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 June 2009, 16:22 GMT]
Vanni civilians held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention centres in Jaffna and Vavuniyaa are suffering from serious health conditions due to lack of medicines, proper medical treatment and poor sanitary facilities, Jaffna Health Department sources said. A 29-year-old woman from Maamoolai, Mu’l’liyava’lai from Vanni held in Raamavil detention centre, suspected to be suffering from septicaemia, died on 6 May in Jaffna Teaching Hospital.
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Largest ammunition dump explodes in SLA Vavuniyaa camp

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 June 2009, 13:08 GMT]
Residents of Eerapperiyaku'lam in Vavuniyaa reported hearing loud explosions, and seeing fire from the ammunition dump of the 211- Due Command of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Vavuniyaa from 6:00 p.m. Tuesday. The explosions have been continuing for more than an hour, according to reports from Vavuniyaa. The ammunition dump is one of the largest used by the SLA, military observers said.
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IDPs occupying railway properties in Jaffna to be evicted

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 June 2009, 11:13 GMT]
Jaffna Government Agent (GA) has instructed all Internally Displaced People (IDPs) presently occupying railway stations and other railway properties including living quarters and the railway track areas from Thellippazhai to Kodikaamam to vacate them before 20 June, sources in Jaffna said. The government decision to resume train service from Vavuniya to Kaangeasanththu’rai soon and its directive to the GA is the reason for the urgent eviction order. The IDPs, more than 20,000 in number, are in a quandary as no alternate places for them to relocate have been arranged by the authorities, the sources added
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Sri Lanka refuses to allow Mercy Ship to unload relief

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 June 2009, 20:32 GMT]
Despite repeated appeals by the Directors of Mercy Mission, a humanitarian project with a ship loaded with relief items donated by expatriate Tamils in Europe to help Tamils caught up in the war in NorthEast, Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has been detaining the Mercy Mission ship the MV “Captain Ali,” for more than three days, and is refusing to allow the 884 metric tons worth of relief items to be unloaded, sources close to the project said. Latest information indicates Colombo is moving towards returning the ship back to international waters, and force the ship to return to its origination port.
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JVP decides against contesting Jaffna MC

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 2009, 08:26 GMT]
The Sinhala extreme nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) said it has decided not to contest the election to the Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC). The decision was taken by the JVP politburo held on Wednesday. However, the JVP politburo is scheduled to meet next week to decide on contesting the Vavuniyaa Urban Council, party sources said.
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Elections to Jaffna MC, Vavuniyaa UC in August

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 2009, 08:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Elections Secretariat announced that nominations from recognized political parties and independent groups for elections to the Jaffna Municipal Council and Vavuniyaa Urban Council would be accepted from June 18 till June 25. The date of polls to these local authorities are to be announced after 12:00 noon of June 25 after the closure of nominations, election officials said.
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Nomination date for Jaffna Municipal Council election announced

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 June 2009, 21:02 GMT]
While 40 to 50 percent of Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) voters internally displaced or living in foreign countries, Jaffna election department has announced that the nominations for the forthcoming JMC elections have to be made from 18 to 25 June. The Election Commissioner will announce the date of the JMC election once the nomination lists have been tendered, sources in Jaffna said.
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Jaffna Bishop seeks release of 6 Catholic priests detained in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 June 2009, 14:02 GMT]
Jaffna Bishop Rt. Rev. Joseph Saundaranayagam has despatched a letter to Defence Secretary requesting the release of six Catholic parish priests who are being held in an unknown Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camp in Vavuniyaa, sources in Jaffna said.
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Hunger strike of British Aid worker enters 16th day

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 June 2009, 04:48 GMT]
Tim Martin, director of Act Now, a rights group formed by former British aid workers in Sri Lanka, is on a hunger striek in Parliament Square, London, calling for intervention by U.S. and other Governments to protect the massacre-survivors from the Safety Zone in Mulliaththeevu, currently being interned in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) supervised camps in Vavuniyaa. Martin handed a letter to Mr Kerry McCarthy MP, and Mrs Kerry when they visited him, and asked the MP to hand over the letter to U.S. President Obama, well wishers at the Parliament square said.
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Colombo to issue finger print ID to Vanni civilians in custody

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2009, 11:23 GMT]
All members of IDP families including children of over ten years of age who were forced to flee Vanni and detained by the Colombo government in Vavuniyaa internment camps are to be issued with special identity cards with their finger prints. Police with officials of the Presidential Secretariat are currently engaged in implementing the scheme.
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Diarrhoea claims 9 lives in Vavuniyaa internment camp in one day

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 June 2009, 10:30 GMT]
Nine elderly IDP persons sheltered in Cheddiku'lam internment camp Saturday died due to diarrhoea. Several IDP families in the camp have been affected by diarrhoea. Cheddiku'lam Inquirer into sudden deaths Mr.E.Sahul Hameed held the inquests. Lack of proper distribution of drinking water and medical facilities was the reason for the spread of diarrhoea among the IDPs, according to Cheddiku'lam District Medical Officer.
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SLA officials accused of taking bribes from Vanni detainees

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 May 2009, 23:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) high officials in charge of the internment camps in Jaffna, where Vanni civilians are held, are alleged to be taking bribes ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 rupees to free the youths among the detainees, according to complaints made by the detainees to Human Rights Organizations (HRC) in Jaffna. SLA authorities in Jaffna, however, continue to refute such allegations.
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TNA MP Kanagaretnam allowed to meet fellow TNA MPs

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 May 2009, 16:53 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, Mr N Srikantha and Mr Sivanathan Kishor met separately their fellow parliamentarian Sathasivam Kanagaretnam who is being detained in the Fourth Floor of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Sri Lanka Police in Colombo. Mr.Kanagaretnam is detained since a special CID team took him into custody from an internment camp in Omanthai, in Vavuniyaa district where Vanni IDPs are being kept, media reports said.
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Sri Lanka hunting media’s Tamil sources - RSF

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 May 2009, 23:47 GMT]
Apart from threatening to prosecute journalists who attempt to visit the northern areas captured from the Liberation Tigers, Sri Lanka’s military is trying to identify Tamil civilians who provided information to the foreign press by infiltrating paramilitaries into their military-run refugee camps, RSF (Reporters Without Borders) said Friday. While the Army general appointed in charge of resettling refugees says “all foreign journalists are working against his homeland,” the country’s police chief claims that several journalists, “mostly Sinhalese”, were on the payroll of the LTTE and were involved in the insurgency.
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Catholic priest reported missing, another dies of heart attack, in Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 May 2009, 16:42 GMT]
Former principal of St. Patrick’s College, Jaffna, Rev. Fr. Francis Joseph, aged seventy, who had been serving in Vanni with six other priests in Puthumaaththa’lan is reported missing, according to the request made to ICRC by Jaffna Bishop House to find his whereabouts, Thursday. Meanwhile, one of the six priests, Rev. Fr. Mariampillai Thatheus Sarathjeevan, 41, died of heart attack while leaving Vanni with the last badge of civilians fleeing Vanni, Jaffna Bishop House sources said.
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Mass burial of IDPs in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 May 2009, 15:50 GMT]
Bodies of sixty elderly persons and six babies, members of displaced families from Vanni region due to military operation by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and sheltered transit centres in Vavuniyaa were buried in one burial grave in Poonthoaddam general cemetery in Vavuniyaa Sunday morning, media reports said.
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Elderly IDP deaths escalate - Coronor

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 May 2009, 14:19 GMT]
“More elders die in transit camps located for Vanni displaced persons located in Vavuniyaa due to lack of proper facilities. Hence I appeal to the authorities to send elders displaced from Vanni direct to Homes for the Elderly instead of IDP camps. This would prevent more deaths of elders in IDP camps,” said the Chettikulam Inquirer into Sudden Deaths, Mr.E. Sahul Hameed, media reports said.
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